^x^x^t  ^ 


^\^ 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


BOSWELLS  LIFE  OF  JOHNSON 
G.  BIRKBECK   HILL 


<5 


t. 


m 


From  a  bust  by  J.  Kollckciis,  R.A. 


Bo  SWELL'S 

Life  of  Johnson 


IXCLUDIXG  BOSIVELL'S  JOURNAL  OF  A  TOUR  TO  THE  HEBRIDES 
AXD  yOHNSOX'S  DIARY  OF  A  JOURNEY  INTO  NORTH  IVALES 


EDITED   13Y 


GEORGE  BIRKBECK  HILL,  D.C.L. 

TEM BROKE  COLLEGE,  OXFORD 


IN  SIX  VOLUMES 
VOLUME   II. -LIFE  (1765-1776) 


NEW    YORK 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS,  FRANKLIN    SQUARE 

1891 


CONTENTS    OF   VOL.  II. 


Life  of  Samuel  Johnson,  LL.D.  (November,  1765-MARCH, 

1776) 1-545 

Appendices: 

A.  Autograph  Records  by  Johnson  (1766)  in  the 

Bodleian  Library 547 

B.  Johnson's  Sentiments  towards  his  Fellow-sub- 

jects IN  America 549 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS,  Etc. 
Volume    II. 


Samuel  Johnson,  from  the  Bust  by  Nollekens   .         .  Frontispiece. 
Facsimile   of   Johnson's    Handwriting    in    his 

54TH  YEAR Facing  p.   i 

Dr.  Johnson's  House,  Johnson's  Court  ...  "           6 

James  Boswell "         14 

James  Boswell,  in  Costume  of  a  Corsican  Chief  "         "]% 

Samuel  Johnson,  in  Hebridean  Costume     .        .  "       306 

Dr.  Johnson's  House,  Bolt  Court  ....  •'       490 

Lichfield "530 


g. 


W\^    ^o 


At/^W   y/i-   (/l.Ntj^    (Jwv    OW    L|ti/  (K^X    itc^   <LfcJiLi.u.!ii. 


Facsimile  ov  Dr.  Johnson's   Handwriting  in  ihs  54TI1  year. 


.^ 


THE    LIFE    OF 
SAMUEL    JOHNSON,    LED. 


IN  1764  and  1765  it  should  seem  that  Dr.  Johnson  was  so 
busily  employed  with  his  edition  of  Shakspeare,  as  to 
have  had  little  leisure  for  any  other  literary  exertion,  or,  in- 
deed, even  for  private  correspondence  \  He  did  not  favour 
me  with  a  single  letter  for  more  than  two  years,  for  which 
it  will  appear  that  he  afterwards  apologised. 

He  was,  however,  at  all  times  ready  to  give  assistance  to 
his  friends,  and  others,  in  revising  their  works,  and  in  writing 
for  them,  or  greatly  improving  their  Dedications.  In  that 
courtly  species  of  composition  no  man  excelled  Dr.  Johnson. 
Though  the  loftiness  of  his  mind  prevented  him  from  ever 
dedicating  in  his  own  person  \  he  wrote  a  very  great  number 

'  Had  he  been  '  busily  employed  '  he  would,  no  doubt,  have  finished 
the  edition  in  a  few  months.  He  himself  had  recorded  at  Easter, 
1765:  'My  time  has  been  unprofitably  spent,  and  seems  as  a  dream 
that  has  left  nothing  behind.'     Pr.  and  Med.,  p.  61. 

^  rJedications  had  been  commonly  used  as  a  means  of  getting  money 
by  flattery.  I.  D'Israeli  in  his  Cala7nities  of  Authors,  i.  64,  says : — '  Ful- 
ler's Chit)-ch  History  is  disgraced  by  twelve  particular  dedications.  It 
was  an  expedient  to  procure  dedication  fees  ;  for  publishing  books  by 
subscription  was  an  art  not  yet  discovered.'  The  price  of  the  dedica- 
tion of  a  play  was,  he  adds,  in  the  time  of  George  I,  twenty  guineas. 
So  much  then,  at  least,  Johnson  lost  by  not  dedicating  Irene.  How- 
ever, when  he  addressed  the  Plan  of  his  Dictionary  to  Lord  Chester- 
field {ante,  i.  212)  he  certainly  came  very  near  a  dedication.  Boswell, 
in  the  HypochoJtdriack,  writes : — '  For  my  own  part,  I  own  I  am  proud 
enough.  But  I  do  not  relish  the  stateliness  of  not  dedicating  at  all. 
I  prefer  pleasure  to  pride,  and  it  appears  to  me  that  there  is  much 
pleasure  in  honestly  expressing  one's  admiration,  esteem,  or  aflection 
in  a  public  manner,  and  in  thus  contributing  to  the  happiness  of  an- 
other by  making  him  better  pleased  with  himself.'  London  Mag.  for 
H.— I  of 


Dedications.  [a.d.  1765. 


of  Dedications  for  others.  Some  of  these,  the  persons  who 
were  favoured  with  them  are  unwilHng  should  be  mentioned, 
from  a  too  anxious  apprehension,  as  I  think,  that  they  might 
be  suspected  of  having  received  larger  assistance ' ;  and  some, 
after  all  the  diligence  I  have  bestowed,  have  escaped  my  en- 
quiries. He  told  me,  a  great  many  years  ago, '  he  believed 
he  had  dedicated  to  all  the  Royal  Family  round*;'  and  it 
was  indifferent  to  him  what  was  the  subject  of  the  work 
dedicated,  provided  it  were  innocent.  He  once  dedicated 
some  Musick  for  the  German  Flute  to  Edward,  Duke  of 
York.  In  writing  Dedications  for  others,  he  considered  him- 
self as  by  no  means  speaking  his  own  sentiments. 

Notwithstanding  his  long  silence,  I  never  omitted  to  write 
to  him  when  I  had  any  thing  worthy  of  communicating.  I 
generally  kept  copies  of  my  letters  to  him,  that  I  might  have 

1782,  p.  454.  His  dedications  were  dedications  of  friendship,  not  of 
flattery  or  servility.  He  dedicated  his  Tour  to  Corsica  to  Paoli,  his 
Tour  to  the  Hebrides  to  Malone,  and  his  Life  of  Jo/utson  to  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds.  Goldsmith,  in  like  manner,  distrest  though  he  so  often  was, 
dedicated  his  Traivller  to  his  brother,  the  Deserted  Village  to  Sir 
Joshua,  and  She  Sloops  to  Conquer  to  Johnson. 

*  A  passage  in  Boswell's  letter  to  Malone  of  Jan.  29,  1791  (Croker's 
Boswell,  p.  829),  shows  that  it  is  Reynolds  of  whom  he  is  writing.  '  I 
am,'  he  writes, '  to  cancel  a  leaf  of  the  first  volume,  having  found  that 
though  Sir  Joshua  certainly  assured  me  he  had  no  objection  to  my 
mentioning  that  Johnson  wrote  a  dedication  for  him,  he  now  thinks 
otherwise.  In  that  leaf  occurs  the  mention  of  Johnson  having  writ- 
ten to  Dr.  Leland,  thanking  the  University  of  Dublin  for  their  diplo- 
ma.' In  the  first  edition,  this  mention  of  the  letter  is  followed  by  the 
passage  above  about  dedications.  It  was  no  doubt  Reynolds's  Dedi- 
cation of  his  Discourses  to  the  King  in  the  year  1778  that  Johnson 
wrote.  The  first  sentence  is  in  a  high  degree  Johnsonian.  '  The  reg- 
ular progress  of  cultivated  life  is  from  necessaries  to  accommodations, 
from  accommodations  to  ornaments.' 

*  'That  is  to  say,'  he  added,  'to  the  last  generation  of  the  Royal 
Family.'  St&post,  April  15,  1773.  We  may  hope  that  the  Royal  Fam- 
ily were  not  all  like  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  who,  when  Gibbon  brought 
him  the  second  volume  of  the  Decline  and  Fall, '  received  him  with 
much  good  nature  and  affability, -saying  to  him,  as  he  laid  the  quarto 
on  the  table.  "  Another  d — d  thick,  square  book !  Always  scribble, 
scribble,  scribble  !     Eh  !  Mr.  Gibbon  }"  '     Best's  Memorials,  p.  68. 

a  full 


Aetat.  60.]  Boswell  in  Corsica.  3 

a  full  view  of  our  correspondence,  and  never  be  at  a  loss  to 
understand  any  reference  in  his  letters'.  He  kept  the  greater 
part  of  mine  very  carefully ;  and  a  short  time  before  his 
death  was  attentive  enough  to  seal  them  up  in  bundles,  and 
order  them  to  be  delivered  to  me,  which  was  accordingly 
done.  Amongst  them  I  found  one,  of  which  I  had  not  made 
a  copy,  and  which  I  own  I  read  with  pleasure  at  the  distance 
of  almost  twenty  years.  It  is  dated  November,  1765,  at  the 
palace  of  Pascal  Paoli,  in  Corte,  the  capital  of  Corsica,  and 
is  full  of  generous  enthusiasm  ^  After  giving  a  sketch  of 
what  I  had  seen  and  heard  in  that  island,  it  proceeded  thus: 
'  I  dare  to  call  this  a  spirited  tour.  I  dare  to  challenge  your 
approbation.' 

This  letter  produced  the  following  answer,  which  I  found 
on  my  arrival  at  Paris : 

A  Mr.  Mr.  Boswell,  chez  Mr.  Waters,  Banquier,  a  Paris. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  Apologies  are  seldom  of  any  use.     We  will  delay  till  your 
arrival  the  reasons,  good  or  bad,  which  have  made  me  such  a 

'  Such  care  was  needless.  Boswell  complained  (/^;5'/,  June  24,  1774), 
that  Johnson  did  not  answer  his  letters,  but  only  sent  him  returns. 

*  '  On  one  of  the  days  that  my  ague  disturbed  me  least,  I  walked 
from  the  convent  to  Corte,  purposely  to  write  a  letter  to  Mr.  Samuel 
Johnson.  I  told  my  revered  friend,  that  from  a  kind  of  superstition 
agreeable  in  a  certain  degree  to  him  as  well  as  to  myself,  I  had,  during 
my  travels,  written  to  him  from  Loca  Solennia,  places  in  some  meas- 
ure sacred.  That,  as  I  had  written  to  him  from  the  tomb  of  Melanc- 
thon  {st&  post,  June  28, 1777),  sacred  to  learning  and  piety,  I  now  wrote 
to  him  from  the  palace  of  Pascal  Paoli,  sacred  to  wisdom  and  liberty.' 
Boswell's  Tour  to  Corsica,  p.  218.  How  delighted  would  Boswell  have 
been  had  he  lived  to  see  the  way  in  which  he  is  spoken  of  by  the  biog- 
rapher of  Paoli :  '  En  travcrsant  la  Mediterranee  sur  de  freles  navires 
pour  venir  s'asseoir  au  foyer  de  la  nationalite  Corse,  des  hommcs graves 
tels  que  Boswel  et  Volney  obeissaient  sans  doute  a  un  sentiment  bien 
plus  eleve  qu'  au  besoin  vulgaire  d'une  puerile  curiosite.'  Htstotre  de 
Pascal  Paoli,  par  A.  Arrighi,  i.  231.  By  every  Corsican  of  any  educa- 
tion the  name  of  Boswell  is  known  and  honoured.  One  of  them  told 
me  that  it  was  in  Boswell's  pages  that  Paoli  still  lived  for  them.  He 
inffjrmed  me  also  of  a  family  which  .still  preserved  by  tradition  the 
remembrance  of  Boswell's  visit  to  their  ancestral  home. 

sparing 


4  BosweWs  Return  to  London.         [a.d.  1766. 

sparing  and  ungrateful  correspondent.  Be  assured,  for  the  pres- 
ent, that  nothing  has  lessened  either  the  esteem  or  love  with  which 
I  dismissed  you  at  Harwich.  Both  have  been  increased  by  all  that 
I  have  been  told  of  you  by  yourself  or  others ;  and'  when  you  return, 
you  will  return  to  an  unaltered,  and,  I  hope,  unalterable  friend. 

'  All  that  you  have  to  fear  from  me  is  the  vexation  of  disappoint- 
ing me.  No  man  loves  to  frustrate  expectations  which  have  been 
formed  in  his  favour ;  and  the  pleasure  which  I  promise  myself 
from  your  journals  and  remarks  is  so  great,  that  perhaps  no  degree 
of  attention  or  discernment  will  be  sufficient  to  afford  it. 

'  Come  home,  however,  and  take  your  chance.  I  long  to  see 
you,  and  to  hear  you ;  and  hope  that  we  shall  not  be  so  long  sep- 
arated again.  Come  home,  and  expect  such  a  welcome  as  is  due 
to  him  whom  a  wise  and  noble  curiosity  has  led,  where  perhaps  no 
native  of  this  country  ever  was  before". 

*  The  twelve  following  lines  of  this  letter  were  published  by  Bos- 
well  in  his  Corsica  (p.  219)  without  Johnson's  leave.  {See  post,  March 
23, 1768.)  Temple,  to  whom  the  book  had  been  shewn  before  publica- 
tion, had,  it  should  seem,  advised  Boswell  to  omit  this  extract.  Bos- 
well  replied  : — '  Your  remarks  are  of  great  service  to  me  . . .  but  I  must 
have  my  great  preceptor,  Mr.  Johnson,  introduced.'  Letters  of  Bos- 
well, p.  122.  In  writing  to  excuse  himself  to  Johnson  (post,  April  26, 
1768),  he  says,  'the  temptation  to  publishing  it  was  so  strong.' 

■•'  'Tell  your  Court,'  said  Paoli  to  Boswell,  'what  you  have  seen 
here.  They  will  be  curious  to  ask  you.  A  man  come  from  Corsica 
will  be  like  a  man  come  from  the  Antipodes.'  Boswell's  Corsica, 
p.  188.  He  was  not  indeed  the  first '  native  of  this  country  '  to  go  there. 
He  found  in  Bastia  '  an  English  woman  of  Penrith,  in  Cumberland. 
When  the  Highlanders  marched  through  that  country  in  the  year 
1745,  she  had  married  a  soldier  of  the  French  picquets  in  the  very 
midst  of  all  the  confusion  and  danger,  and  when  she  could  hardly 
understand  one  word  he  said.'  Id.,  p.  226.  Boswell  nowhere  quotes 
Mrs.  Barbauld's  fine  lines  on  Corsica.  Perhaps  he  was  ashamed  of 
the  praise  of  the  wife  of  '  a  little  Presbyterian  parson  who  kept  an  in- 
fant boarding-school.'  (See /<7j-/,  under  Dec.  17,  1775.)  Yet  he  must 
have  been  pleased  when  he  read  : — 

'Such  were  the  working  thoughts  which  swelled  the  breast 
Of  generous  Boswell ;  when  with  nobler  aim 
And  views  beyond  the  narrow  beaten  track 
By  trivial  fancy  trod,  he  turned  his  course 
From  polished  Gallia's  soft  delicious  vales,'  &c. 

Mrs.  Barbauld's  Poems,  i.  2. 
'  I  have 


Aetat.  57.]  Joliuson  in  Johusou  s  CotirL  5 

'  I  have  no  news  to  tell  you  that  can  deserve  your  notice ;  nor 
would  I  willingly  lessen  the  pleasure  that  any  novelty  may  give 
you  at  your  return.  I  am  afraid  we  shall  find  it  difficult  to  keep 
among  us  a  mind  which  has  been  so  long  feasted  with  variety. 
But  let  us  try  what  esteem  and  kindness  can  effect. 

'  As  your  father's  liberality  has  indulged  you  with  so  long  a  ram- 
ble, I  doubt  not  but  you  will  think  his  sickness,  or  even  his  desire 
to  see  you,  a  sufficient  reason  for  hastening  your  return.  The 
longer  we  live,  and  the  more  we  think,  the  higher  value  we  learn 
to  put  on  the  friendship  and  tenderness  of  parents  and  of  friends. 
Parents  we  can  have  but  once  ;  and  he  promises  himself  too  much, 
who  enters  life  with  the  expectation  of  finding  many  friends. 
Upon  some  motive,  I  hope,  that  you  will  be  here  soon ;  and  am 
willing  to  think  that  it  will  be  an  inducement  to  your  return,  that 
it  is  sincerely  desired  by,  dear  Sir, 

'  Your  affectionate  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 

'Johnson's  Court,  Fleet-street, 
January  14,  1766.' 

I  returned  to  London  in  February,  and  found  Dr.  John- 
son in  a  good  house  in  Johnson's  Court,  Fleet  -  street ',  in 
which  he  had  accommodated  Miss  Williams  with  an  apart- 
ment on  the  ground  floor,  while  Mr,  Levett  occupied  his 
post  in  the  garret :  his  faithful  Francis  was  still  attending 
upon   him.      He   received   me   with   much   kindness.      The 

'  Murphy,  in  the  Monthly  Review,  txxvi.  376,  thus  describes  John- 
son's life  in  Johnson's  Court  after  he  had  received  his  pension.  '  His 
friend  Levett,  his  physician  in  ordinary,  paid  his  daily  visits  with  assi- 
duity ;  attended  at  all  hours,  made  tea  all  the  morning,  talked  what 
he  had  to  say,  and  did  not  expect  an  answer;  or,  if  occasion  required 
it,  was  mute,  officious,  and  ever  complying. . . .  There  Johnson  sat  every 
morning,  receiving  visits,  hearing  the  topics  of  the  day,  and  indolently 
trifling  away  the  time.  Chymistry  afforded  some  amusement.'  Haw- 
kins {Life,  p.  452),  says  : — '  An  upper  room,  which  had  the  advantages 
of  a  good  light  and  free  air,  he  fitted  up  for  a  study.  A  silver  standish 
and  some  useful  plate,  which  he  had  been  prevailed  on  to  accept  as 
pledges  of  kindness  from  some  who  most  esteemed  him,  together  with 
furniture  that  would  not  have  disgraced  a  better  dwelling,  banished 
those  appearances  of  squalid  indigence  which,  in  his  less  happy  days, 
disgusted  those  who  came  to  see  him.'  Sonic  of  the  plate  Johnson 
had  bought.     Sce/<?i-/,  April  15,  1781. 

fragments 


6  Johnsons  lines  in  The  Traveller,  [a.d.  176g. 

fragments  of  our  first  conversation,  which  I  have  preserved, 
are  these :  I  told  him  that  Voltaire,  in  a  conversation  with 
me,  had  distinguished  Pope  and  Dryden  thus  : — '  Pope  drives 
a  handsome  chariot,  with  a  couple  of  neat  trim  nags ;  Dry- 
den a  coach,  and  six  stately  horses.'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir, 
the  truth  is,  they  both  drive  coaches  and  six ;  but  Dryden's 
horses  are  either  galloping  or  stumbling  :  Pope's  go  at  a 
steady  even  trot'.'  He  said  of  Goldsmith's  Traveller,  which 
had  been  published  in  my  absence, '  There  has  not  been  so 
fine  a  poem  since  Pope's  time.' 

And  here  it  is  proper  to  settle,  with  authentick  precision, 
what  has  long  floated  in  publick  report,  as  to  Johnson's  be- 
ing himself  the  authour  of  a  considerable  part  of  that  poem. 
Much,  no  doubt,  both  of  the  sentiments  and  expression, 
were  derived  from  conversation  with  him  ;  and  it  was  cer- 
tainly submitted  to  his  friendly  revision  :  but  in  the  year 
1783,  he,  at  my  request,  marked  with  a  pencil  the  lines  which 
he  had  furnished,  which  are  only  line  420th, 

'To  stop  too  fearful,  and  too  faint  to  go;' 

and  the  concluding  ten  lines,  except  the  last  couplet  but  one, 
which  I  distinguished  by  the  Italick  character: 

'  How  small  of  all  that  human  hearts  endure, 
That  part  which  kings  or  laws*  can  cause  or  cure. 

'  It  is  remarkable,  that  Mr.  Gray  has  employed  somewhat  the  same 
image  to  characterise  Dryden.  He,  indeed,  furnishes  his  car  with  but 
two  horses,  but  they  are  of '  ethereal  race  :' 

'Behold  where  Dryden's  less  presumptuous  car, 
Wide  o'er  the  fields  of  glory  bear 
Two  coursers  of  ethereal  race. 
With  necks  in  thunder  cloath'd,  and  long  resounding  pace.' 

Ode  on  the  Progress  of  Poesy.  Boswell.  In  the  Li'fe  of  Pope  ( Works, 
viii.  324)  Johnson  says: — 'The  style  of  Dryden  is  capricious  and  va- 
ried ;  that  of  Pope  is  cautious  and  uniform.  Dryden  obeys  the  mo- 
tions of  his  own  mind ;  Pope  constrains  his  mind  to  his  own  rules  of 
composition.  Dryden  is  sometimes  vehement  and  rapid ;  Pope  is 
always  smooth,  uniform,  and  gentle.' 
'  In  the  original  laws  or  kings. 

Still 


DR.  Johnson's  house. 
Johusons  Court,  Fled  Street. 


Aetat. 57.]  Johnsons  lines  i7i  The  Traveller.  7 

Still  to  ourselves  in  every  place  consign'd, 

Our  own  felicity  we  make  or  find ' ; 

With  secret  course,  which  no  loud  storms  annoy, 

Glides  the  smooth  current  of  domestick  joy  : 

The  lifted  axe,  the  agonizing  wheel, 

Luke's  iron  crown,  and  Damien''s  bed  of  steel. 

To  men  remote  from  power,  but  rarely  known, 

Leave  reason,  faith,  and  conscience,  all  our  own.' 

He  added, '  These  are  all  of  which  I  can  be  sure".'  They 
bear  a  small  proportion  to  the  whole,  which  consists  of  four 
hundred  and  thirty-eight  verses.  Goldsmith,  in  the  couplet 
which  he  inserted,  mentions  Luke  as  a  person  well  known, 
and  superficial  readers  have  passed  it  over  quite  smoothly; 
while  those  of  more  attention  have  been  as  much  perplexed 
by  Luke,  as  by  Lydiat^,  in  The  Vanity  of  Human  WisJies. 
The  truth  is,  that  Goldsmith  himself  was  in  a  mistake.  In 
the  Respublica  Hungarica^,  there  is  an  account  of  a  desperate 

*  '  The  mind  is  its  own  place,  and  in  itself 

Can  make  a  heaven  of  hell,  a  hell  of  heaven.' 

Paradise  Lost,  i.  254. 

'  Caelum,  non  animum,  mutant  qui  trans  mare  currunt.' 

Horace,  Epis.  i.  1 1.  27. 
See  also  ante,  i.  441,  note  i. 

*  '  I  once  inadvertently  put  him,'  wrote  Reynolds,  '  in  a  situation 
from  which  none  but  a  man  of  perfect  integrity  could  extricate  him- 
self. I  pointed  at  some  lines  in  The  Traveller  vihich.  I  told  him  I  was 
sure  he  wrote.  He  hesitated  a  little ;  during  this  hesitation  I  recol- 
lected myself,  that,  as  I  knew  he  would  not  lie,  I  put  him  in  a  cleft- 
stick,  and  should  have  had  but  my  due  if  he  had  given  me  a  rough 
answer ;  but  he  only  said,  "  Sir,  I  did  not  write  them,  but  that  you  may 
not  imagine  that  I  have  wrote  more  than  I  really  have,  the  utmost  I 
have  wrote  in  that  poem,  to  the  best  of  my  recollection,  is  not  more 
than  eighteen  lines."  [Nine  seems  the  actual  number.]  It  must  be 
observed  there  was  then  an  opinion  about  town  that  Dr.  Johnson 
wrote  the  whole  poem  for  his  friend,  who  was  then  in  a  manner  an 
unknown  writer.'  Taylor's  Reynolds,  ii.  458.  See  also  post,  April  9, 
1778.  For  each  line  of  The  Tra-oeller  Goldsmith  was  paid  ii:|'".  {cDite, 
i.  224,  note).  Johnson's  present,  therefore,  of  nine  lines  was,  if  reck- 
oned in  money,  worth  8/5!^.  *  See  ante,  i.  225,  note. 

*  Respublica  ct  Status  Rcgni  ILungariae.     Ex  Officina  Ehc7>iriana, 

rebellion 


8  Teaching  by  lectures.  [a.d.  1766. 

rebellion  in  the  year  15 14,  headed  by  two  brothers,  of  the 
name  of  Zeck^  George  and  Luke.  When  it  was  quelled, 
George,  not  Luke,  was  punished  by  his  head  being  encircled 
with  a  red-hot  iron  crown  :  '  corona  candescente  f erred  coro- 
natur\'  The  same  severity  of  torture  was  exercised  on  the 
Earl  of  Athol,  one  of  the  murderers  of  King  James  I.  of 
Scotland. 

Dr.  Johnson  at  the  same  time  favoured  me  by  marking 
the  lines  which  he  furnished  to  Goldsmith's  Deserted  Village, 
which  are  only  the  last  four : 

'That  trade's  proud  empire  hastes  to  swift  decay, 
As  ocean  sweeps  the  labour'd  mole  away : 
While  self-dependent  power  can  time  defy, 
As  rocks  resist  the  billows  and  the  sky.' 

Talking  of  education, '  People  have  now-a-days,  (said  he,) 
got  a  strange  opinion  that  every  thing  should  be  taught  by 
lectures.  Now,  I  cannot  see  that  lectures  can  do  so  much 
good  as  reading  the  books  from  which  the  lectures  are  taken. 
I  know  nothing  that  can  be  best  taught  by  lectures",  except 

1634,  p.  136.  This  work  belongs  to  the  series  of  Republics  mentioned 
by  '\o\vn%on, post ,  under  April  29,  1776. 

*  ' "  Luke  "  had  been  taken  simply  for  the  euphony  of  the  line.  He 
was  one  of  two  brothers,  Dosa.  .  .  .  The  origin  of  the  mistake  [of 
Zeck  for  Dosa]  is  curious.  The  two  brothers  belonged  to  one  of  the 
native  races  of  Transylvania  called  Szeklers  or  Zecklers,  which  de- 
scriptive addition  follows  their  names  in  the  German  biographical 
authorities ;  and  this,  through  abridgment  and  misapprehension,  in 
subsequent  books  came  at  last  to  be  substituted  for  the  family  name.' 
Forster's  GohisniitJi,  i.  370.  The  iron  crown  was  not  the  worst  of  the 
tortures  inflicted. 

"^  See /^^/,  April  15,  1781.  In  1748  Johnson  had  written  {Works, \. 
231)  :  '  At  a  time  when  so  many  schemes  of  education  have  been  pro- 
jected, ...  so  many  schools  opened  for  general  knowledge,  and  so  many 
lectures  in  particular  sciences  attended.'  Goldsmith,  in  his  Life  of 
Nash  (published  in  1762),  describes  the  lectures  at  Bath  'on  the  arts 
and  sciences,  which  are  frequently  taught  there  in  a  pretty,  superficial 
manner,  so  as  not  to  tease  the  understanding,  while  they  afford  the 
imagination  some  amusement.'  Cunningham's  Golds)nith's  Works, 
iv.  59. 

where 


Aetat.  57.]  DeistS.  9 

where  experiments  are  to  be  shewn.  You  may  teach  chym- 
istr\^  by  lectures.  —  You  might  teach  making  of  shoes  by 
lectures' !' 

At  night  I  supped  with  him  at  the  Mitre  tavern,  that  we 
might  renew  our  social  intimacy  at  the  original  place  of 
meeting.  But  there  was  now  a  considerable  difference  in 
his  way  of  living.  Having  had  an  illness,  in  which  he  was 
advised  to  leave  off  wine,  he  had,  from  that  period,  continued 
to  abstain  from  it,  and  drank  only  water,  or  lemonade '\ 

I  told  him  that  a  foreign  friend  of  his^,  whom  I  had  met 
with  abroad,  was  so  wretchedly  perverted  to  infidelity,  that 
he  treated  the  hopes  of  immortality  with  brutal  levity ;  and 
said, '  As  man  dies  like  a  dog,  let  him  lie  like  a  dog.'  JOHN- 
SON. '7/ he  dies  like  a  dog,  let  him  lie  like  a  dog.'  I  added, 
that  this  man  said  to  me, '  I  hate  mankind,  for  I  think  my- 
self one  of  the  best  of  them,  and  I  know  how  bad  I  am.' 
Johnson.  *  Sir,  he  must  be  very  singular  in  his  opinion,  if 
he  thinks  himself  one  of  the  best  of  men  ;  for  none  of  his 
friends  think  him  so.' — He  said,  no  honest  man  could  be  a 
Deist ;  for  no  man  could  be  so  after  a  fair  examination  of 
the  proofs  of  Christianity.     I  named   Hume*.     Johnson. 

'  Perhaps  Gibbon  had  read  this  passage  at  the  time  when  he  wrote 
in  \\\'s,Mc)noi7's:—'  It  has  indeed  been  observed,  nor  is  the  observation 
absurd,  that,  excepting  in  experimental  sciences  which  demand  a  costly 
apparatus  and  a  dexterous  hand,  the  many  valuable  treatises  that  have 
been  pubHshed  on  every  subject  of  learning  may  now  supersede  the 
ancient  mode  of  oral  instruction.'  Gibbon's  Misc.  Works,  i.  50.  See 
post,  March  20,  1776,  note.  -  See  anif,  i.  120. 

*  Baretti  was  in  Italy  at  the  same  time  as  Boswell.  That  they  met 
seems  to  be  shewn  by  a  passage  in  Boswell's  letter  {post,  Nov.  6,  1766). 
Malonc  wrote  of  him  : — '  He  appears  to  be  an  infidel.'    Y'r'xorsM alone, 

P-  399- 

■•  Lord  Charlemont  records  {Life,  i.  235)  that '  Mrs.  Mallet,  meeting 
Hume  at  an  assembly,  boldly  accosted  him  in  these  words: — "Mr, 
Hume,  give  me  leave  to  introduce  myself  to  you  ;  we  deists  ought  to 
know  each  other."  "  Madame,"  replied  Hume,  "  I  am  no  deist.  I  do 
not  style  myself  so,  neither  do  I  desire  to  be  known  by  that  appella- 
tion."'  Hume,  in  1763  or  1764,  wrote  to  Dr.  Blair  about  the  men  of 
letters  at  Paris  : — '  It  would  give  you  and  Robertson  great  .satisfaction 
to  find  that  there  is  not  a  single  deist  among  them.'     J.  II.  Burton's 

'No. 


lO  Equality  in  happi7iess.  [a.d.  1766. 

'  No,  Sir;  Hume  owned  to  a  clergyman  in  the  bishoprick  of 
Durham,  that  he  had  never  read  the  New  Testament  with 
attention.'  I  mentioned  Hume's  notion',  that  all  who  are 
happy  are  equally  happy ;  a  little  miss  with  a  new  gown  at 
a  dancing-school  ball,  a  general  at  the  head  of  a  victorious 
army,  and  an  orator,  after  having  made  an  eloquent  speech 
in  a  great  assembly.  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  that  all  who  are 
happy,  are  equally  happy,  is  not  true.  A  peasant  and  a 
philosopher  may  be  equally  satisfied,  but  not  equally  Jiappy. 
Happiness  consists  in  the  multiplicity  of  agreeable  conscious- 
ness. A  peasant  has  not  capacity  for  having  equal  happi- 
ness with  a  philosopher.'  I  remember  this  very  question 
very  happily  illustrated  in  opposition  to  Hume,  by  the  Rev- 
erend Mr.  Robert  Brown",  at  Utrecht.     'A  small  drinking- 

Hume,  ii.  i8i.  There  was  no  deist,  I  suppose,  because  they  were  all 
atheists.  Rom  illy  {Life,  i.  179)  records  the  following  anecdote,  which 
he  had  from  Diderot  in  1781  : — '  Hume  dina  avec  une  grande  com- 
pagnie  chez  le  Baron  d'Holbach.  II  etait  assis  a  cote  du  Baron ;  on 
parla  de  la  religion  naturelle.  "Pour  les  Athees,"  disait  Hume,  "je 
ne  crois  pas  qu'il  en  existe  ;  je  n'en  ai  jamais  vu."  "  Vous  avez  ete  un 
peu  malheureux,"  repondit  I'autre,  "vous  voici  a  table  avec  dix-sept 
pour  la  premiere  fois." '  It  was  on  the  same  day  that  Diderot  related 
this  that  he  said  to  Romilly,  '  II  faut  sabrer  la  theologie.' 

'  '  The  inference  upon  the  whole  is,  that  it  is  not  from  the  value  or 
worth  of  the  object  which  any  person  pursues  that  we  can  determine 
his  enjoyment ;  but  merely  from  the  passion  with  which  he  pursues 
it,  and  the  success  which  he  meets  with  in  his  pursuit.  Objects  have 
absolutely  no  worth  or  value  in  themselves.  They  derive  their  worth 
merely  from  the  passion.  If  that  be  strong  and  steady  and  success- 
ful, the  person  is  happy.  It  cannot  reasonably  be  doubted  but  a  lit- 
tle miss,  dressed  in  a  new  gown  for  a  dancing-school  ball,  receives  as 
complete  enjoyment  as  the  greatest  orator,  who  triumphs  in  the  splen- 
dour of  his  eloquence,  while  he  governs  the  passions  and  resolutions 
of  a  numerous  assembly.'  Hume's  Essays,  i.  17  {T/ie  Sceptic).  Pope 
had  written  in  the  Essay  on  Man  (iv.  57)  : 

'Condition,  circumstance,  is  not  the  thing; 
Bliss  is  the  same  in  subject  or  in  King.' 

See  2\%o  post,  April  15, 1778. 

*  In  Boswelliana,  p.  220,  a  brief  account  is  given  of  his  life,  which 
was  not  altogether  uneventful. 

glass 


Aetat.  57.]  Courting  great  men.  1 1 

glass  and  a  large  one,  (said  he,)  may  be  equally  full ;  but 
the  large  one  holds  more  than  the  small.' 

Dr.  Johnson  was  very  kind  this  evening,  and  said  to  me, 
'  You  have  now  lived  five-and-twenty  years,  and  you  have 
employed  them  well.'  '  Alas,  Sir,  (said  I,)  I  fear  not.  Do 
I  know  history  ?  Do  I  know  mathematicks  ?  Do  I  know 
law?'  Johnson.  'Why,  Sir,  though  you  may  know  no 
science  so  well  as  to  be  able  to  teach  it,  and  no  profession 
so  well  as  to  be  able  to  follow  it,  your  general  mass  of  knowl- 
edge of  books  and  men  renders  you  very  capable  to  make 
yourself  master  of  any  science,  or  fit  yourself  for  any  pro- 
fession.' I  mentioned  that  a  gay  friend  had  advised  me 
against  being  a  lawyer,  because  I  should  be  excelled  by 
plodding  block-heads.  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir,  in  the  formu- 
lary and  statutory  part  of  law,  a  plodding  block-head  may 
excel ;  but  in  the  ingenious  and  rational  part  of  it  a  plodding 
block-head  can  never  excel.' 

I  talked  of  the  mode  adopted  by  some  to  rise  in  the  world, 
by  courting  great  men,  and  asked  him  whether  he  had  ever 
submitted  to  it.  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir,  I  never  was  near 
enough  to  great  men,  to  court  them.  You  may  be  prudent- 
ly attached  to  great  men  and  yet  independent.  You  are 
not  to  do  what  you  think  wrong ;  and.  Sir,  you  are  to  cal- 
culate, and  not  pay  too  dear  for  what  you  get.  You  must 
not  give  a  shilling's  worth  of  court  for  six-pence  worth  of 
good.  But  if  you  can  get  a  shilling's  worth  of  good  for 
six-pence  worth  of  court,  you  are  a  fool  if  you  do  not  pay 
court '.' 

He  said, '  If  convents  should  be  allowed  at  all,  they  should 
only  be  retreats  for  persons  unable  to  serve  the  publick,  or 

*  We  may  compare  with  this  what  he  says  in  The  Rambler,  No.  21, 
about  the  'cowardice  which  always  encroaches  fast  upon  such  as 
spend  their  time  in  the  company  of  persons  higher  than  themselves.' 
In  No.  104  he  writes : — '  It  is  dangerous  for  mean  minds  to  venture 
themselves  within  the  sphere  of  greatness.'  In  the  court  that  Bos- 
well  many  years  later  paid  to  Lord  Lonsdale,  he  suffered  all  the  hu- 
miliations that  the  brutality  of  this  petty  greatness  can  inflict.  Let- 
ters of  Boswcli,  p.  324.     See  al'so  post,  Sept.  22, 1777. 

who 


12  Rousseau  and  Wilkes.  [a.d.  176G. 

who  have  served  it.  It  is  our  first  duty  to  serve  society,  and, 
after  we  have  done  that,  we  may  attend  wholly  to  the  salva- 
tion of  our  own  souls.  A  youthful  passion  for  abstracted 
devotion  should  not  be  encouraged '.' 

I  introduced  the  subject  of  second-sight,  and  other  mys- 
terious manifestations  ;  the  fulfilment  of  which,  I  suggested, 
might  happen  by  chance.  JOHNSON.  '  Yes,  Sir ;  but  they 
have  happened  so  often,  that  mankind  have  agreed  to  think 
them  not  fortuitous  ^' 

I  talked  to  him  a  great  deal  of  what  I  had  seen  in  Corsica, 
and  of  my  intention  to  publish  an  account  of  it.  He  encour- 
aged me  by  saying,  '  You  cannot  go  to  the  bottom  of  the 
subject ;  but  all  that  you  tell  us  will  be  new  to  us.  Give  us 
as  many  anecdotes  as  you  can  ^' 

Our  next  meeting  at  the  Mitre  was  on  Saturday  the  15th 
of  February,  when  I  presented  to  him  my  old  and  most  in- 
timate friend,  the  Reverend  Mr.  Temple  \  then  of  Cambridge. 
I  having  mentioned  that  I  had  passed  some  time  with  Rous- 
seau in  his  wild  retreat  ^  and  having  quoted  some  remark 

'  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  19,  1773. 

^  Johnson  ( Works,  ix.  107)  thus  sums  up  his  examination  of  second- 
sight  : — '  There  is  against  it,  the  seeming  analogy  of  things  confusedly 
seen,  and  little  understood ;  and  for  it,  the  indistinct  cry  of  natural 
persuasion,  which  may  be,  perhaps,  resolved  at  last  into  prejudice  and 
tradition.  I  never  could  advance  my  curiosity  to  conviction ;  but 
came  away  at  last  only  willing  to  believe.'  See  2X1,0  post,  March  24, 
1775.  Hume  said  of  the  evidence  in  favour  of  second -sight : — 'As 
finite  a^dded  to  finite  never  approaches  a  hair's  breadth  nearer  to  infi- 
nite, so  a  fact  incredible  in  itself  acquires  not  the  smallest  accession 
of  probability  by  the  accumulation  of  testimony.'  J.  H.  Burton's 
Hiaiie,  i.  480. 

^  '  I  love  anecdotes,'  said  Johnson.  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  16, 
1773.  Boswell  said  that' Johnson  always  condemned  the  word  anec- 
dotes, as  used  in  the  sense  that  the  French,  and  we  from  them,  use  it, 
as  signifying  particulars.'  Letters  of  Boswell,  p.  31 1.  In  his  Dictiona- 
ry, he  defined  'Anecdote  Something  yet  unpublished;  secret  history.' 
In  the  fourth  edition  he  added  :  '  It  is  now  used,  after  the  French,  for 
a  biographical  incident ;  a  minute  passage  of  private  life.' 

*  See  ante,  ]u\y  19,  1763. 

^  Boswell,  writing  to  Wilkes  in   1776,  said :  —  ' Though  we   dififei- 

made 


Aetat.  57.]  Rousseau  a7id  Voltaire.  13 

made  by  Mr.  Wilkes,  with  whom  I  had  spent  many  pleasant 
hours  in  Italy,  Johnson  said  (sarcastically,)  '  It  seems,  Sir, 
you  have  kept  very  good  company  abroad,  Rousseau  and 
Wilkes !'  Thinking  it  enough  to  defend  one  at  a  time,  I 
said  nothing  as  to  my  gay  friend,  but  answered  with  a  smile, 
'  My  dear  Sir,  you  don't  call  Rousseau  bad  company.  Do 
you  really  think  Jiini  a  bad  man?'  JOHNSON.  'Sir,  if  you 
are  talking  jestingly  of  this,  I  don't  talk  with  you.  If  you 
mean  to  be  serious,  I  think  him  one  of  the  worst  of  men ;  a 
rascal  who  ought  to  be  hunted  out  of  society,  as  he  has  been. 
Three  or  four  nations  have  expelled  him  ;  and  it  is  a  shame 
that  he  is  protected  in  this  country'.'  BOSWELL.  *I  don't 
deny,  Sir,  but  that  his  noveP  may,  perhaps,  do  harm  ;  but  I 
cannot  think  his  intention  was  bad.'  JOHNSON,  '  Sir,  that 
will  not  do.  We  cannot  prove  any  man's  intention  to  be 
bad.  You  may  shoot  a  man  through  the  head,  and  say  you 
intended  to  miss  him  ;  but  the  Judge  will  order  you  to  be 
hanged.  An  alleged  want  of  intention,  when  evil  is  commit- 
ted, will  not  be  allowed  in  a  court  of  justice.  Rousseau,  Sir, 
is  a  very  bad  man.  I  would  sooner  sign  a  sentence  for  his 
transportation,  than  that  of  any  felon  who  has  gone  from 
the  Old  Bailey  these  many  years.  Yes,  I  should  like  to  have 
him   work   in    the    plantations ^'      BosWELL.  'Sir,   do   you 

widely  in  religion  and  politics,  z7_y  a  dcs  points  oh  nos  dmes  sent  unies, 
as  Rousseau  said  to  me  in  his  wild  retreat.'     Almon's  Wilkes,  iv.  319. 

'  Rousseau  fled  from  France  in  1762.  A  few  days  later  his  arrest 
was  ordered  at  Geneva.  He  fled  from  Neufchatel  in  1763,  and  soon 
afterwards  he  was  banished  from  Berne.  Noiru.  Biog.  Ghi.  xlii.  750. 
He  had  come  to  England  with  David  Hume  a  few  weeks  before  this 
conversation  was  held,  and  was  at  this  time  in  Chiswick.  Hume's 
Private  Cor  res.  pp.  125,  145. 

*  Rousseau  had  by  this  time  published  his  Nonvclle  Heloise  and 
Emile. 

^  Less  than  three  months  after  the  date  of  this  conversation  Rous- 
seau wrote  to  General  Conway,  one  of  the  Secretaries  of  State,  thank- 
ing him  for  the  pension  which  George  HI  proposed  secretly  to  con- 
fer on  him.  Hume's  Private  Corres.  p.  165.  Miss  Burney,  in  her 
preface  to  Evelina,  a  novel  which  was  her  introduction  to  Johnson's 
strong  affection,  mentioning  Rousseau  and  Johnson,  adds  in  a  foot- 
think 


1 4  Subordination.  [a.d.  1766. 

think  him  as  bad  a  man  as  Voltaire?'  JOHNSON.  'Why, 
Sir,  it  is  difficult  to  settle  the  proportion  of  iniquity  between 
them'.' 

This  violence  seemed  very  strange  to  me,  who  had  read 
many  of  Rousseau's  animated  writings  with  great  pleasure, 
and  even  edification ;  had  been  much  pleased  with  his  socie- 
ty ^  and  was  just  come  from  the  Continent,  where  he  was 
very  generally  admired.  Nor  can  I  yet  allow  that  he  de- 
serves the  very  severe  censure  which  Johnson  pronounced 
upon  him.  His  absurd  preference  of  savage  to  civilised 
life',  and  other  singularities,  are  proofs  rather  of  a  defect  in 
his  understanding,  than  of  any  depravity  in  his  heart.  And 
notwithstanding  the  unfavourable  opinion  which  many  wor- 
thy men  have  expressed  of  his  '  Profession  dc  Foi  du  Vicaire 
Savoyard'  I  cannot  help  admiring  it  as  the  performance  of 
a  man  full  of  sincere  reverential  submission  to  Divine  Mys- 
tery, though  beset  with  perplexing  doubts ;  a  state  of  mind 
to  be  viewed  with  pity  rather  than  with  anger. 

On  his  favourite  subject  of  subordination,  Johnson  said, 
'  So  far  is  it  from  being  true  that  men  are  naturally  equal ', 

note  : — '  However  superior  the  capacities  in  which  these  great  writers 
deserve  to  be  considered,  they  must  pardon  me  that,  for  the  dignity  of 
my  subject,  I  here  rank  the  authors  of  Rasselas  and  Eloise  as  noveUsts.' 
'  Rousseau  thus  wrote  of  himself : — '  Dieu  est  juste  ;  il  veut  que  je 
soufTre ;  et  il  sait  que  je  suis  innocent.  Voila  le  motif  de  ma  confi- 
ance,  mon  coeur  et  ma  raison  me  orient  qu'elle  ne  me  trompera  pas. 
Laissons  done  faire  les  hommes  et  la  destinee ;  apprenons  a  souffrir 
sans  murmure ;  tout  doit  a  la  fin  rentrer  dans  I'ordre,  et  mon  tour 
viendra  tot  ou  tard.'     Rousseau's  Works,  xx.  223. 

•  '  He  entertained  me  very  courteously,'  wrote  Boswell  in  his  Cor- 
sica, p.  140. 

^  In  this  preference  Boswell  pretended  at  times  to  share.  See  post, 
Sept.  30,  1769. 

*  Johnson  seems  once  to  have  held  this  view  to  some  extent ;  for, 
writing  of  Savage's  poem  0;i  Public  Spirit, \\e  says  {Works, \\n.  156)  : 
— 'He  has  asserted  the  natural  equality  of  mankind,  and  endeavoured 
to  suppress  that  pride  which  inclines  men  to  imagine  that  right  is  the 
consequence  of  power.'  See  ^X-io  post,  Sept.  23,  1777,  where  he  asserts  : 
■ — '  It  is  impossible  not  to  conceive  that  men  in  their  original  state 
were  equal.'     For  the  opposite  opinion,  see  a7ite,  June  25, 1763. 

that 


JAMES    BOSWKI.I.,   ESQ. 

From  an  original  sketch  by  George  Laugton,  Esq. 


Aetat.  57.]  Subordination.  1 5 

that  no  two  people  can  be  half  an  hour  together,  but  one 
shall  acquire  an  evident  superiority  over  the  other.' 

I  mentioned  the  advice  given  us  by  philosophers,  to  con- 
sole ourselves,  when  distressed  or  embarrassed,  by  thinking 
of  those  who  are  in  a  worse  situation  than  ourselves.  This, 
I  observed,  could  not  apply  to  all,  for  there  must  be  some 
who  have  nobody  worse  than  they  are.  JOHNSON.  'Why, 
to  be  sure.  Sir,  there  are  ;  but  they  don't  know  it.  There  is 
no  being  so  poor  and  so  contemptible,  who  does  not  think 
there  is  somebody  still  poorer,  and  still  more  contemptible.' 

As  my  stay  in  London  at  this  time  was  very  short,  I  had 
not  many  opportunities  of  being  with  Dr.  Johnson  ;  but  I 
felt  my  veneration  for  him  in  no  degree  lessened,  by  my  hav- 
ing seen  vutltorum  Iwiuinum  mores  ct  iirbcs\  On  the  con- 
trary, by  having  it  in  my  power  to  compare  him  with  many 
of  the  most  celebrated  persons  of  other  countries  ^  my  ad- 
miration of  his  extraordinary  mind  was  increased  and  con- 
firmed. 

The  roughness,  indeed,  which  sometimes  appeared  in  his 
manners,  was  more  striking  to  me  now,  from  my  having  been 
accustomed  to  the  studied  smooth  complying  habits  of  the 
Continent ;  and  I  clearly  recognised  in  him,  not  without  re- 
spect for  his  honest  conscientious  zeal,  the  same  indignant 
and  sarcastical  mode  of  treating  every  attempt  to  unhinge 
or  weaken  good  principles. 

One  evening  when  a  young  gentleman"  teized  him  with  an 
account  of  the  infidelity  of  his  servant,  who,  he  said,  would 

•  '  Qui  mores  hominum  multorum  vidit  et  urbcs.'  '  Manners  and 
towns  of  various  nations  viewed.'  Francis.  Horace,  Ars  Pociica, 
1.  142. 

"^  By  the  time  Boswell  was  twenty-six  years  old  he  could  boast  that 
he  had  made  the  acquaintance  of  Voltaire,  Rousseau,  and  Paoli  among 
foreigners ;  and  of  Adam  Smith,  Robertson,  Hume,  Johnson,  Gold- 
smith, Garrick,  Horace  Walpole,  Wilkes,  and  perhaps  Reynolds,  among 
Englishmen.  He  had  twice  at  lea.st  received  a  letter  from  the  Earl 
of  Chatham. 

^  In  such  pa.ssages  as  this  we  may  generally  assume  that  the  gentle- 
man, whose  name  is  not  given,  is  Boswell  himself.  Sec  ante,  i.  4,  and 
post,  Oc\..  16,  1769. 

not 


1 6  Boswell  talks  stuff.  [a.d.  1766. 

not  believe  the  scriptures,  because  he  could  not  read  them  in 
the  original  tongues,  and  be  sure  that  they  were  not  invent- 
ed. '  Why,  foolish  fellow,  (said  Johnson,)  has  he  any  better 
authority  for  almost  every  thing  that  he  believes?'  BOS- 
WELL.  '  Then  the  vulgar,  Sir,  never  can  know  they  are  right, 
but  must  submit  themselves  to  the  learned.'  JOHNSON.  '  To 
be  sure.  Sir.  The  vulgar  are  the  children  of  the  State,  and 
must  be  taught  like  children '.'  BosWELL.  '  Then,  Sir,  a 
poor  Turk  must  be  a  Mahometan,  just  as  a  poor  Englishman 
must  be  a  Christian  '  ?'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  yes.  Sir  ;  and  what 
then?  This  now  is  such  stuff  as  I  used  to  talk  to  my  moth- 
er, when  I  first  began  to  think  myself  a  clever  fellow ;  and 
she  ought  to  have  whipt  me  for  it.' 

Another  evening  Dr.  Goldsmith  and  I  called  on  him,  with 
the  hope  of  prevailing  on  him  to  sup  with  us  at  the  Mitre. 
We  found  him  indisposed,  and  resolved  not  to  go  abroad. 
'  Com.e  then,  (said  Goldsmith,)  we  will  not  go  to  the  Mitre 
to-night,  since  we  cannot  have  the  big  man'  with  us.'  John- 
son then  called  for  a  bottle  of  port,  of  which  Goldsmith  and 
I  partook,  while  our  friend,  now  a  water-drinker,  sat  by  us. 
Goldsmith.  '  I  think,  Mr.  Johnson,  you  don't  go  near  the 
theatres  now.  You  give  yourself  no  more  concern  about  a 
new  play,  than  if  you  had  never  had  any  thing  to  do  with 
the  stage.'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir,  our  tastes  greatly  alter. 
The  lad  does  not  care  for  the  child's  rattle,  and  the  old  man 
does  not  care  for  the  young  man's  whore.'  GOLDSMITH. 
*  Nay,  Sir,  but  your  Muse  was  not  a  whore.'  JOHNSON.  '  Sir, 
I  do  not  think  she  was.  But  as  we  advance  in  the  journey 
of  life,  we  drop  some  of  the  things  which  have  pleased  us ; 
whether  it  be  that  we  are  fatigued  and  don't  choose  to  carry 
so  many  things  any  farther,  or  that  we  find  other  things 
which  we  like  better.'     BosWELL.  '  But,  Sir,  why  don't  you 

'  See /c^/,  1780,  in  Mr.  Langton's  '  Collection,'  where  this  assertion 
is  called  '  his  usual  remark.' 

*  See /6ij/,  April  15,1778. 

^  These  two  words  may  be  observed  as  marks  of  Mr.  Boswell's  ac- 
curacy. It  is  a  jocular  Irish  phrase,  which,  of  all  Johnson's  acquaint- 
ances, no  one  probably,  but  Goldsmith,  would  have  used. — Croker. 

give 


Aetat.  oT.j      Johusoii  like  a  retired  physician.  1 7 

give  us  something  in  some  other  way  ?'  GOLDSMITH.  '  Ay, 
Sir,  we  have  a  claim  upon  you  '.'  JOHNSON.  '  No,  Sir,  I  am 
not  obliged  to  do  any  more.  No  man  is  obliged  to  do  as 
much  as  he  can  do.  A  man  is  to  have  part  of  his  life  to  him- 
self. If  a  soldier  has  fought  a  good  many  campaigns,  he  is 
not  to  be  blamed  if  he  retires  to  ease  and  tranquillity.  A 
physician,  who  has  practised  long  in  a  great  city,  may  be  ex- 
cused if  he  retires  to  a  small  town,  and  takes  less  practice. 
Now,  Sir,  the  good  I  can  do  by  my  conversation  bears  the 
same  proportion  to  the  good  I  can  do  by  my  writings,  that 
the  practice  of  a  physician,  retired  to  a  small  town,  does  to 
his  practice  in  a  great  city  \'  BOSWELL.  '  But  I  wonder. 
Sir,  you  have  not  more  pleasure  in  writing  than  in  not  writ- 
ing.'    Johnson.  '  Sir,  you  ;;/^/ wonder.' 

He  talked  of  making  verses,  and  observed, '  The  great  dif- 
ficulty is  to  know  when  you  have  made  good  ones.  When 
composing,  I  have  generally  had  them  in  my  mind,  perhaps 
fifty  at  a  time,  walking  up  and  down  in  my  room  ;  and  then 
I  have  written  them  down,  and  often,  from  laziness,  have 
written  only  half  lines.  I  have  written  a  hundred  lines  in  a 
day.  I  remember  I  wrote  a  hundred  lines  of  The  Vanity  of 
Hiunan  Wishes  in  a  day\  Doctor,  (turning  to  Goldsmith,) 
I  am  not  quite  idle  ;  I  made  one  line  t'other  day ;  but 
I    made  no    more.'      Goldsmith.   '  Let    us    hear   it ;    we'll 

'  See  ante,  May  24,  1763. 

■■*  Johnson's  best  justification  for  the  apparent  indolence  of  the  lat- 
ter part  of  his  life  may  be  found  in  his  own  words :  '  Every  man  of 
genius  has  some  arts  of  fixing  the  attention  peculiar  to  himself,  by 
which,  honestly  exerted,  he  may  benefit  mankind.  .  .  .  To  the  position 
of  Tully,  that  if  virtue  could  be  seen  she  must  be  loved,  may  be  added, 
that  if  truth  could  be  heard  she  must  be  obeyed.'  T/w  Rambler,  No. 
87.  He  fixed  the  attention  best  by  his  talk.  For  '  the  position  of 
Tully,'  se&  post,  under  March  19,  1776. 

^  See  ante,  i.  223,  and  post.  May  i,  1783.  Goldsmith  wrote  T/ie  Trav- 
eller and  Deserted  Village  on  a  very  different  plan.  '  To  save  himself 
the  trouble  of  transcription,  he  wrote  the  Imes  in  his  first  copy  very 
wide,  and  would  so  fill  up  the  intermediate  space  with  reiterated  cor- 
rections, that  scarcely  a  word  of  his  first  effusions  was  left  unaltered.' 
Goldsmith's  Misc.  Works,  i.  1 13. 

II. — 2  put 


1 8  Burke  enters  Parliament.  [a.d.  1766. 

put  a  bad    one   to   it.'      JOHNSON.    *  No,  Sir,  I   have   for- 
got it '.' 

Such  specimens  of  the  easy  and  playful  conversation  of 
the  great  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  are,  I  think,  to  be  prized  ;  as 
exhibiting  the  little  varieties  of  a  mind  so  enlarged  and  so 
powerful  when  objects  of  consequence  required  its  exertions, 
and  as  giving  us  a  minute  knowledge  of  his  character  and 
modes  of  thinking. 

'To  Bennet  Langton,  Esq.,  at  Langton,  near  Spilsby, 
Lincolnshire. 

'Dear  Sir, 

'  What  your  friends  have  done,  that  from  your  departure  till 
now  nothing  has  been  heard  of  you,  none  of  us  are  able  to  inform 
the  rest ;  but  as  we  are  all  neglected  alike,  no  one  thinks  himself 
entitled  to  the  privilege  of  complaint. 

'  I  should  have  known  nothing  of  you  or  of  Langton,  from  the 
time  that  dear  Miss  Langton  left  us,  had  not  I  met  Mr.  Simpson, 
of  Lincoln,  one  day  in  the  street,  by  whom  I  was  informed  that 
Mr.  Langton,  your  Mamma,  and  yourself,  had  been  all  ill,  but  that 
you  were  all  recovered. 

'  That  sickness  should  suspend  your  correspondence,  I  did  not 
wonder ;  but  hoped  that  it  would  be  renewed  at  your  recovery. 

'  Since  you  will  not  inform  us  where  you  are,  or  how  you  live,  I 
know  not  whether  you  desire  to  know  any  thing  of  us.  However, 
I  will  tell  you  that  the  club  subsists ;  but  we  have  the  loss  of 
Burke's  company  since  he  has  been  engaged  in  publick  business,' 
in  which  he  has  gained  more  reputation  than  perhaps  any  man  at 

'  Mrs.  Thrale,  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Johnson,  said  : — '  Don't  sit  making 
verses  that  never  will  be  written.'  Piozzi  Letters,  ii.  183.  Baretti 
noted  opposite  this  in  the  margin  of  his  copy :  '  Johnson  was  always 
making  Latin  or  English  verses  in  his  mind,  but  never  would  write 
them  down.' 

°  Burke  entered  Parliament  as  member  for  Wendover  borough  on 
Jan.  14,  1766.  William  Burke,  writing  to  Barry  the  artist  on  the 
following  March  23,  says : — '  Ned's  success  has  exceeded  our  most 
sanguine  hopes ;  all  at  once  he  has  darted  into  fame.  He  is  full  of 
real  business,  intent  upon  doing  real  good  to  his  country,  as  much  as 
if  he  was  to  receive  twenty  per  cent,  from  the  commerce  of  the  whole 
empire,  which  he  labours  to  improve  and  extend.'  Barry's  Works, 
i.42. 

his 


Aetat.  57.]        The  atUndajicc  at  The  Club.  19 

his  [first]  appearance  ever  gained  before.  He  made  two  speeches 
in  the  House  for  repeahng  the  Stamp-act,  which  were  pubUckly 
commended  by  IMr.  Pitt,  and  have  filled  the  town  with  wonder'. 

'  Burke  is  a  great  man  by  nature,  and  is  expected  soon  to  attain 
civil  greatness.'^  I  am  grown  greater  too,  for  I  have  maintained 
the  newspapers  these  many  weeks' ;  and  what  is  greater  still,  I 
have  risen  every  morning  since  New-year's  day,  at  about  eight ; 
when  I  was  up,  I  have  indeed  done  but  little ;  yet  it  is  no  slight 
advancement  to  obtain  for  so  many  hours  more,  the  consciousness 
of  being. 

'  I  wish  you  were  in  my  new  study' ;  I  am  now  writing  the  first 
letter  in  it.     I  think  it  looks  very  pretty  about  me. 

'  Uyer^  is  constant  at  the  club  ;  Hawkins  is  remiss ;  I  am  not 
over  diligent.  Dr.  Nugent,  Dr.  Goldsmith,  and  Mr.  Reynolds,  are 
very  constant.  Mr.  Lye  is  printing  his  Saxon  and  Gothick  Dic- 
tionary' ;  all  THE  CLUB  subscribes. 

'  Vou  will  pay  my  respects  to  all  my  Lincolnshire  friends.  I  am, 
dear  Sir, 

'  Most  affectionately  your's, 
'  March  9,  1766.  '  Sam.  Johnson.' 

Johnson's-court,  Fleet-street'.' 

'To  Bennet  Langton,  Esq.,  at  Langton,  near  Spilsby, 
Lincolnshire. 
'  Dear  Sir, 

'  In  supposing  that  I  should  be  more  than  commonly  affected 
by  the  death  of  Peregrine  Langton*,  you  were  not  mistaken ;  he 

'  It  was  of  these  speeches  that  Macaulay  wrote  : — '  The  House  of 
Commons  heard  Pitt  for  the  last  time,  and  Burke  for  the  first  time, 
and  was  in  doubt  to  which  of  them  the  palm  of  eloquence  should  be 
assigned.  It  was  indeed  a  splendid  sunset  and  a  splendid  dawn.' 
Macaulay 's  Essays  (edition  1874),  iv.  330. 

"  ScQ.  post,  March  20,  1776. 

'  Boswell  has  already  stated  {anfc\  Oct.  1765)  that  Johnson's  Shake- 
speare was  'virulently  attacked'  by  Kenrick.  No  doubt  there  were 
other  attacks  and  rejoinders  too. 

*  Two  days  earlier  he  had  drawn  up  a  prayer  on  entering  Novum 
Museum.     Pr.  and  Med.  p.  69. 

'  Sqq  post,  1780,  in  Mr.  Langton's  Collection. 

'  Dictionarium  Saxonico  et  Cothico-Latinum.  London,  1772.  Lye 
died  in  1767.     O.  Manning  completed  the  work. 

^  See  Appendix  A.  "  Mr.  Langton's  uncle.     Boswell. 

was 


20  Mr.  Peregrine  Laugtoji.  [a.d.  1766. 

was  one  of  those  whom  I  loved  at  once  by  instinct  and  by  reason. 
I  have  seldom  indulged  more  hope  of  any  thing  than  of  being  able 
to  improve  our  acquaintance  to  friendship.  Many  a  time  have  I 
placed  myself  again  at  Langton,  and  imagined  the  pleasure  with 
which  I  should  walk  to  Partney'  in  a  summer  morning ;  but  this  is 
no  longer  possible.  We  must  now  endeavour  to  preserve  what  is 
left  us, — his  example  of  piety  and  oeconomy.  I  hope  you  make 
what  enquiries  you  can,  and  write  down  what  is  told  you.  The  lit- 
tle things  which  distinguish  domestick  characters  are  soon  forgot- 
ten :  if  you  delay  to  enquire,  you  will  have  no  information ;  if  you 
neglect  to  write,  information  will  be  vain." 

'  The  place  of  residence  of  Mr.  Peregrine  Langton.     Boswell. 

■  Mr.  Langton  did  not  disregard  this  counsel,  but  wrote  the  follow- 
ing account,  which  he  has  been  pleased  to  communicate  to  me : 

'The  circumstances  of  Mr.  Peregrine  Langton  were  these.  He  had 
an  annuity  for  life  of  two  hundred  pounds /^r  anmtni.  He  resided  in 
a  village  in  Lincolnshire ;  the  rent  of  his  house,  with  two  or  three 
small  fields,  was  twenty-eight  pounds ;  the  county  he  lived  in  was  not 
more  than  moderately  cheap ;  his  family  consisted  of  a  sister,  who 
paid  him  eighteen  pounds  annually  for  her  board,  and  a  niece.  The 
servants  were  two  maids,  and  two  men  in  livery.  His  common  way 
of  living,  at  his  table,  was  three  or  four  dishes ;  the  appurtenances  to 
his  table  were  neat  and  handsome ;  he  frequently  entertained  com- 
pany at  dinner,  and  then  his  table  was  well  served  with  as  many 
dishes  as  were  usual  at  the  tables  of  the  other  gentlemen  in  the 
neighbourhood.  His  own  appearance,  as  to  clothes,  was  genteelly 
neat  and  plain.     He  had  always  a  post-chaise,  and  kept  three  horses. 

'  Such,  with  the  resources  I  have  mentioned,  was  his  way  of  living, 
which  he  did  not  suffer  to  employ  his  whole  income :  for  he  had  al- 
ways a  sum  of  money  lying  by  him  for  any  extraordinary  expences 
that  might  arise.  Some  money  he  put  into  the  stocks ;  at  his  death, 
the  sum  he  had  there  amounted  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds. 
He  purchased  out  of  his  income  his  household-furniture  and  linen, 
of  which  latter  he  had  a  very  ample  store ;  and,  as  I  am  assured  by 
those  that  had  very  good  means  of  knowing,  not  less  than  the  tenth 
part  of  his  income  was  set  apart  for  charity :  at  the  time  of  his  death, 
the  sum  of  twenty-five  pounds  was  found,  with  a  direction  to  be  em- 
ployed in  such  uses. 

'  He  had  laid  down  a  plan  of  living  proportioned  to  his  income,  and 
did  not  practise  any  extraordinary  degree  of  parsimony,  but  endeav- 
oured that  in  his  family  there  should  be  plenty  without  waste ;  as  an 
instance  that  this  was  his  endeavour,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  men- 
tion a  method  he  took  in  regulating  a  proper  allowance  of  malt  liquor 

'His 


Aetat.  57.]  Mr.  Peregrine  Langton.  21 

*  His  art  of  life  certainly  deserves  to  be  known  and  studied.     He 
lived  in  plenty  and  elegance  upon  an  income  which,  to  many  would 

to  be  drunk  in  his  family,  that  there  might  not  be  a  deficiency,  or 
any  intemperate  profusion  :  On  a  complaint  made  that  his  allowance 
of  a  hogshead  in  a  month,  was  not  enough  for  his  own  family,  he  or- 
dered the  quantity  of  a  hogshead  to  be  put  into  bottles,  had  it  locked 
up  from  the  servants,  and  distributed  out,  every  day,  eight  quarts, 
which  is  the  quantity  each  day  at  one  hogshead  in  a  month ;  and 
told  his  servants,  that  if  that  did  not  suffice,  he  would  allow  them 
more ;  but,  by  this  method,  it  appeared  at  once  that  the  allowance 
was  much  more  than  sufficient  for  his  small  family ;  and  this  proved 
a  clear  conviction,  that  could  not  be  answered,  and  saved  all  future 
dispute.  He  was,  in  general,  very  diligently  and  punctually  attended 
and  obeyed  by  his  servants ;  he  was  very  considerate  as  to  the  in- 
junctions he  gave,  and  explained  them  distinctly ;  and,  at  their  first 
coming  to  his  service,  steadily  exacted  a  close  compliance  with  them, 
without  any  remission ;  and  the  servants  finding  this  to  be  the  case, 
soon  grew  habitually  accustomed  to  the  practice  of  their  business, 
and  then  very  little  further  attention  was  necessary.  On  extraordi- 
nary instances  of  good  behaviour,  or  diligent  service,  he  was  not  want- 
ing in  particular  encouragements  and  presents  above  their  wages ;  it 
is  remarkable  that  he  would  permit  their  relations  to  visit  them,  and 
stay  at  his  house  two  or  three  days  at  a  time. 

'  The  wonder,  with  most  that  hear  an  account  of  his  oeconomy,  will 
be,  how  he  was  able,  with  such  an  income,  to  do  so  much,  especially 
when  it  is  considered  that  he  paid  for  every  thing  he  had ;  he  had  no 
land,  except  the  two  or  three  small  fields  which  I  have  said  he  rented  ; 
and,  instead  of  gaining  any  thing  by  their  produce,  I  have  reason  to 
think  he  lost  by  them  ;  however,  they  furnished  him  with  no  further 
assistance  towards  his  housekeeping,  than  grass  for  his  horses,  (not 
hay,  for  that  I  know  he  bought,)  and  for  two  cows.  Every  Monday 
morning  he  settled  his  family  accounts,  and  so  kept  up  a  constant  at- 
tention to  the  confining  his  expences  within  his  income  ;  and  to  do  it 
more  exactly,  compared  those  expences  with  a  computation  he  had 
made,  how  much  that  income  would  afford  him  every  week  and  day 
of  the  year.  One  of  his  oeconomical  practices  was,  as  soon  as  any  re- 
pair was  wanting  in  or  about  his  house,  to  have  it  immediately  per- 
formed. When  he  had  money  to  spare,  he  chose  to  lay  in  a  provision 
of  linen  or  clothes,  or  any  other  necessaries  ;  as  then,  he  said,  he  could 
afford  it,  which  he  might  not  be  so  well  able  to  do  when  the  actual 
want  came ;  in  consequence  of  which  method,  he  had  a  considerable 
supply  of  necessary  articles  lying  by  him,  beside  what  was  in  use. 

'But  the  main  particular  that  seems  to  have  enabled  him  to  do  so 

appear 


22  Mr.  Peregrine  Langton.  [a.d.  1766. 

appear  indigent,  and  to  most,  scanty.  How  he  lived,  therefore, 
every  man  has  an  interest  in  knowing.  His  death,  I  hope,  was 
peaceful ;  it  was  surely  happy. 

'  I  wish  I  had  written  sooner,  lest,  writing  now,  I  should  renew 
your  grief ;  but  I  would  not  forbear  saying  what  I  have  now  said. 

'  This  loss  is,  I  hope,  the  only  misfortune  of  a  family  to  whom 
no  misfortune  at  all  should  happen,  if  my  wishes  could  avert  it. 
Let  me  know  how  you  all  go  on.  Has  Mr.  Langton  got  him  the 
little  horse  that  I  recommended }  It  would  do  him  good  to  ride 
about  his  estate  in  fine  weather. 

'  Be  pleased  to  make  my  compliments  to  Mrs.  Langton,  and  to 
dear  Miss  Langton,  and  Miss  Di,  and  Miss  Juliet,  and  to  every 
body  else. 

'The  Club  holds  very  well  together.  Monday  is  my  night'.  I 
continue  to  rise  tolerably  well,  and  read  more  than  I  did.  I  hope 
something  will  yet  come  on  it\     I  am.  Sir, 

'  Your  most  affectionate  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  May  ID,  1766, 
Johnson's-court,  Fleet-street.' 

much  with  his  income,  was,  that  he  paid  for  every  thing  as  soon  as  he 
had  it,  except,  alone,  what  were  current  accounts,  such  as  rent  for  his 
house  and  servants'  wages  ;  and  these  he  paid  at  the  stated  times  with 
the  utmost  exactness.  He  gave  notice  to  the  tradesmen  of  the  neigh- 
bouring market-towns  that  they  should  no  longer  have  his  custom,  if 
they  let  any  of  his  servants  have  anything  without  their  paying  for  it. 
Thus  he  put  it  out  of  his  power  to  commit  those  imprudences  to 
which  those  are  liable  that  defer  their  payments  by  using  their  money 
some  other  way  than  where  it  ought  to  go.  And  whatever  money  he 
had  by  him,  he  knew  that  it  was  not  demanded  elsewhere,  but  that 
he  might  safely  employ  it  as  he  pleased. 

'  His  example  was  confined,  by  the  sequestered  place  of  his  abode, 
to  the  observation  of  few,  though  his  prudence  and  virtue  would  have 
made  it  valuable  to  all  who  could  have  known  it. — These  few  particu- 
lars, which  I  knew  myself,  or  have  obtained  from  those  who  lived  with 
him,  may  afford  instruction,  and  be  an  incentive  to  that  wise  art  of 
living,  which  he  so  successfully  practised.'     Boswell. 

'  Of  his  being  in  the  chair  of  The  Literary  Club,  which  at  this 
time  met  once  a  week  in  the  evening.  Boswell.  See  a?itc,  Feb. 
1764,  note. 

-  See  post,  Feb.  1767,  where  he  told  the  King  that  'he  must  now 
read  to  acquire  more  knowledge.' 

After 


Aetat.  57.]      BoswelVs  Thesis  in  Civil  Law.  23 

After  I  had  been  some  time  in  Scotland,  I  mentioned  to 
him  in  a  letter  that  '  On  my  first  return  to  my  native  coun- 
X.xy,  after  some  years  of  absence,  I  was  told  of  a  vast  num- 
ber of  my  acquaintance  who  were  all  gone  to  the  land  of 
forgetfulness,  and  I  found  myself  like  a  man  stalking  over 
a  field  of  battle,  who  every  moment  perceives  some  one  ly- 
ing dead.'  I  complained  of  irresolution,  and  mentioned  my 
having  made  a  vow  as  a  security  for  good  conduct.  I  wrote 
to  him  again,  without  being  able  to  move  his  indolence  ; 
nor  did  I  hear  from  him  till  he  had  received  a  copy  of  my 
inaugural  Exercise,  or  Thesis  in  Civil  Law,  which  I  pub- 
lished at  my  admission  as  an  Advocate,  as  is  the  custom  in 
Scotland.     He  then  wrote  to  me  as  follows : 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
'  Dear  Sir, 

'  The  reception  of  your  Thesis  put  me  in  mind  of  my  debt  to 
you.  Why  did  you  *************'.  I  will  punish  you 
for  it,  by  telling  you  that  your  Latin  wants  correction'.     In  the 

'  The  passage  omitted  alluded  to  a  private  transaction.     Boswell. 
■  ^  This  censure  of  my  Latin  relates  to  the  Dedication,  which  was  as 
follows : 

VIRO    NOBILISSIMO,  ORNATISSIMO, 

JOANNL 

VICECOMITI    MOUNTSTUART, 

ATAVIS    EDITO    REGIBUS 

EXCELS/E    FAMILI^   DE    BUTE   SPEI    ALTER/E  : 

LABENTE   SECULO, 

QUUM    HOMINES    NULLIUS    ORIGINIS 

GENUS   /EQUARE   OPIBUS   AGGREDIUNTUR, 

SANGUINIS    ANTIQUI    ET    ILLUSTRIS 

•  SEMPER    MEMORI, 

NATALIUM   SPLENDOREM   VIRTUTIBUS   AUGENTI  : 
AD    PUBLICA    POPULI    COMITIA 

JAM  lf:gato; 

IN    OPTIMATIUM    VERO    MAGN/E    BRITANNI/E   SENATU, 

JURE    H/EREDITARIO, 

OLIM    CONSESSUKO: 

VIM    INSITAM    VARIA    DOCTRINA    PROMOVENTE, 

NEC   TAMEN   SE   VENDITANTK, 

PR^DITO  : 

beginning, 


24  BosivelVs  Latm  criticised.  [a.d.  1766. 


beginning,  Spei  alterce,  not  to  urge  that  it  should  be  prhnce,  is  not 
grammatical :  altcne  should  be  alteri.  In  the  next  line  you  seem 
to  use^tv///i-  absolutely,  for  what  we  ctsW  family,  that  is,  for  illustri- 
ous extradioti,  I  doubt  without  authority.  Homines  nullius  originis, 
for  Niillis  orti  majoribus,  or,  Nulla  loco  iiati,  is,  I  am  afraid,  bar- 
barous.— Ruddiman  is  dead  '. 

'  I  have  now  vexed  you  enough,  and  will  try  to  please  you. 
Your  resolution  to  obey  your  father  I  sincerely  approve ;  but  do 
not  accustom  yourself  to  enchain  your  volatility  by  vows  :  they 
will  sometime  leave  a  thorn  in  your  mind,  which  you  will,  perhaps, 
never  be  able  to  extract  or  eject.  Take  this  warning,  it  is  of  great 
importance '. 

'The  study  of  the  law  is  what  you  very  justly  term  it,  copious 
and  generous  ^ ;  and  in  adding  your  name  to  its  professors,  you 
have  done  exactly  what  I  always  wished,  when  I  wished  you  best. 
I  hope  that  you  will  continue  to  pursue  it  vigorously  and  constant- 
ly \     You  gain,  at  least,  what  is  no  small  advantage,  security  from 

PRISCA    FIDE,  ANIMO   LIBERRIMO, 

ET   MORUM   ELEGANTIA 

INSIGNI  : 

IN    ITALIC   VISITAND^   ITINERE, 

SOCIO   SUO   HONORATISSIMO, 

HASCE   JURISPRUDENTI^   PRIINIITIAS 

DEVINCTISSIM^    AMICITI^   ET    OBSERVANTI^ 

MONUMENTUM, 

D.  D.  C.  Q. 

JACOBUS  BOSWELL.  Boswell. 

^  See  rt«/t',  i.  244.  '  See  j2^^j-/,  May  19,  1778. 

"'  This  alludes  to  the  first  sentence  of  the  Proccmiinji  of  my  Thesis. 
'Jurisprudent!.^  studio  nullum  ubcrius,nullu)n  gcjicrosius  :  in  Icgi- 
bus  enim  agitandis, populorum  mores,  variasquc  fortunes  vices  ex  quibus 
leges  oriuntur,  conieinplari  simul  solemus.'     Boswell. 

*  '  Mr.  Boswell,'  says  Malone, '  professed  the  Scotch  and  the  English 
law ;  but  had  never  taken  very  great  pains  on  the  subject.  His  fa- 
ther, Lord  Auchinleck,  told  him  one  day,  that  it  would  cost  him  more 
trouble  to  hide  his  ignorance  in  these  professions  than  to  show  his 
knowledge.  This  Boswell  owned  he  had  found  to  be  true.'  Euro- 
pean Magazine,  1798,  p.  376.  Boswell  wrote  to  Temple  in  1775  : — '  You 
are  very  kind  in  saying  that  I  may  overtake  you  in  learning.  Believe 
me  though  that  I  have  a  kind  of  impotency  of  study.'  Letters  of  Bos- 
well, p.  1 8 1 . 

those 


Aetat.  57.]  The  choice  of  a  Profession.  25 


those  troublesome  and  wearisome  discontents,  which  are  always 
obtruding  themselves  upon  a  mind  vacant,  unemployed,  and  un- 
determined. 

'  You  ought  to  think  it  no  small  inducement  to  diligence  and 
perseverance,  that  they  will  please  your  father.  We  all  live  upon 
the  hope  of  pleasing  somebody ;  and  the  pleasure  of  pleasing 
ought  to  be  greatest,  and  at  last  always  will  be  greatest,  when  our 
endeavours  are  exerted  in  consequence  of  our  duty. 

'  Life  is  not  long,  and  too  much  of  it  must  not  pass  in  idle  de- 
liberation how  it  shall  be  spent ;  deliberation,  which  those  who 
begin  it  by  prudence,  and  continue  it  with  subtilty,  must,  after  long 
expence  of  thought,  conclude  by  chance'.  To  prefer  one  future 
mode  of  life  to  another,  upon  just  reasons,  requires  faculties  which 
it  has  not  pleased  our  Creator  to  give  us. 

'  If,  therefore,  the  profession  you  have  chosen  has  some  unex- 
pected inconveniencies,  console  yourself  by  reflecting  that  no  pro- 
fession is  without  them ;  and  that  all  the  importunities  and  per- 
plexities of  business  are  softness  and  luxury,  compared  with  the 
incessant  cravings  of  vacancy,  and  the  unsatisfactory  expedients  of 
idleness. 

"  Hicc  sunt  quce  nostra  potui  te  voce  nionere'  ; 
Vade,  age.'' 

'As  to  your  History  of  Corsica,  you  have  no  materials  which 
others  have  not,  or  may  not  have.  You  have,  somehow,  or  other, 
warmed  your  imagination.  I  wish  there  were  some  cure,  like  the 
lover's  leap,  for  all  heads  of  which  some  single  idea  has  obtained 
an  unreasonable  and  irregular  possession.  Mind  your  own  affairs, 
and  leave  the  Corsicans  to  theirs.     I  am,  dear  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  London,  Aug.  21,  1766.' 

'  This  is  a  truth  that  Johnson  often  enforced.  '  Very  few,'  said  the 
poet, '  live  by  choice  :  every  man  is  placed  in  his  present  condition  by 
causes  which  acted  without  his  foresight,  and  with  which  he  did  not 
always  willingly  co-operate.'  Rassc/as,  chap.  16.  'To  him  that  lives 
well,'  answered  the  hermit,  'every  form  of  life  is  good  ;  nor  can  I  give 
any  other  rule  for  choice  than  to  remove  from  all  apparent  evil.'  Id. 
chap.  21.  'Young  man,'  said  Omar, '  it  is  of  little  use  to  form  plans 
of  life.'     The  Idler,  No.  loi. 

'  '  Haec  sunt  qua;  nostra  l/rcat  tc  voce  moncri.'     .Encid  iii.  461. 

'To 


26  BosweWs  defence  of  his  Latin.       [a.d.  1706. 

'To  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson. 

'  Auchinleck,  Nov.  6,  1766. 
'  Much  Esteemed  and  Dear  Sir, 

'I  plead  not  guilty  to '*****************  * 

'Having  thus,  I  hope,  cleared  myself  of  the  charge  brought 
against  me,  I  presume  you  will  not  be  displeased  if  I  escape  the 
punishment  which  you  have  decreed  for  me  unheard.  If  you 
have  discharged  the  arrows  of  criticism  against  an  innocent  man, 
you  must  rejoice  to  find  they  have  missed  him,  or  have  not  been 
pointed  so  as  to  wound  him. 

'  To  talk  no  longer  in  allegory,  I  am,  with  all  deference,  going 
to  offer  a  few  observations  in  defence  of  my  Latin,  which  you  have 
found  fault  with. 

'  You  think  I  should  have  used  spci primes,  instead  of  spei  alterce. 
Spes  is,  indeed,  often  used  to  express  something  on  which  we  have 
a  future  dependence,  as  in  Virg.  Eclog.  i.  1.  14, 

" modo  natnqiie  gemellos 

Spem  gregis  ah  silice  in  tiuda  connixa  reliquit,'^ 

and  in  Georg.  iii.  1.  473, 

"  Spemque  gregemque  simul,'" 

for  the  lambs  and  the  sheep.  Yet  it  is  also  used  to  express  any 
thing  on  which  we  have  a  present  dependence,  and  is  well  applied 
to  a  man  of  distinguished  influence,  our  support,  our  refuge,  our 
prcesidiuni,  as  Horace  calls  Maecenas.  So,  ^neid  xii.  1.  57,  Queen 
Amata  addresses  her  son-in-law  Turnus  : — "  Spes  tu  nunc  una .-" 
and  he  was  then  no  future  hope,  for  she  adds, 

" deciis  imperiumque  Latini 

Te  penes  ■" 

which  might  have  been  said  of  my  Lord  Bute  some  years  ago. 
Now  I  consider  the  present  Earl  of  Bute  to  be  "■  ExeeiscT;  familiee  de 
Bute  spes  prima ;"  and  my  Lord  Mountstuart,  as  his  eldest  son,  to 
be  ''spes  altera:'  So  in  /Eneid  xii.  1.  168,  after  having  mentioned 
Pater  ^neas,  who  was  the  present  spes,  the  reigning  spes,  as  my 
German  friends  would  say,  the  spes  prima,  the  poet  adds, 

'•'■  Et  JHxta  Ascanins,  magna;  spes  altera  Romcer 

*  The  passage  omitted  explained  the  transaction  to  which  the  pre- 
ceding letter  had  alluded.     Boswell. 

'You 


Aetat.  57.]      BosweWs  defence  of  his  Latin.  27 

'  You  think  altcrce  ungrammatical,  and  you  tell  me  it  should 
have  been  altcri.  You  must  recollect,  that  in  old  times  alter  was 
declined  regularly ;  and  when  the  ancient  fragments  preserved  in 
the  jfuris  Civilis  Pontes  were  written,  it  was  certainly  declined  in 
the  way  that  I  use  it.  This,  I  should  think,  may  protect  a  lawyer 
who  writes  altera:  in  a  dissertation  upon  part  of  his  own  science. 
But  as  I  could  hardly  venture  to  quote  fragments  of  old  law  to 
so  classical  a  man  as  Mr.  Johnson,  I  have  not  made  an  accurate 
search  into  these  remains,  to  find  examples  of  what  I  am  able  to 
produce  in  poetical  composition.  We  find  in  Plaut.  Rudens,  act 
iii.  scene  4, 

'''' Nam  huic  TLliexx.  patria  qua:  sit  prof ecto  nescior 

Plautus  is,  to  be  sure,  an  old  comick  writer ;  but  in  the  days  of 
Scipio  and  Lelius,  we  find,  Terent.  Heautontim.  act  ii.  scene  3, 

" hoc  ipsa  in  itinere  alterae 

Dum  narrat,  forte  audiviJ'' 

*  You  doubt  my  having  authority  for  using  genus  absolutely,  for 
what  we  call  family,  that  is,  for  illustrious  extraction.  Now  I  take 
genus  in  Latin,  to  have  much  the  same  signification  with  birth  in 
English ;  both  in  their  primary  meaning  expressing  simply  de- 
scent, but  both  made  to  stand  kut  ii,o-)(i]r,  for  noble  descent. 
Genus  is  thus  used  in  Hor.  lib.  ii.  Sat.  v.  1.  8, 

".£■/  genus  et  virtus,  nisi  cu7n  re,  vilior  alga  est^ 

'  And  in  lib.  i.  Epist.  vi.  1.  37, 

'■'■  Et  genus  et  forjnam  Regina  pecwiia  donate 

'  And  in  the  celebrated  contest  between  Ajax  and  Ulysses,  Ovid's 
Metamorph.  lib.  xiii.  1.  140, 

'''' Nam  genus  et  proavos,  et  qua:  non  fcci?nus  ipsi, 
Vix  ea  nostra  voco.^' 

'■  Plomines  nullius  originis,  for  fiullis  orti  viajoribus,  or  nullo  loco 
nati,  is,  you  are  afraid,  "barbarous." 

'  Origo  is  used  to  signify  extraction,  as  in  Virg.  /Eneid  i.  1.  286, 

'■'■  Nascetur  pulchra  Trojanus  origine   CcesarT 

And  in  .^neid  x.  1.  618, 

"///d"  tamcn  nostrd  deducit  origine  nomen.''' 

And 


28     Johnsons  intimacy  with  Mr.  Chambers,    [a.d.  1766, 

And  as  iiullus  is  used  for  obscure,  is  it  not  in  the  genius  of  the 
Latin  language  to  write  ?!unius  originis,  for  obscure  extraction  ? 

'  I  have  defended  myself  as  well  as  I  could. 

'  Might  I  venture  to  differ  from  you  with  regard  to  the  utility  of 
vows  ?  I  am  sensible  that  it  would  be  very  dangerous  to  make 
vows  rashly,  and  without  a  due  consideration.  But  I  cannot  help 
thinking  that  they  may  often  be  of  great  advantage  to  one  of  a  va- 
riable judgement  and  irregular  inclinations.  I  always  remember  a 
passage  in  one  of  your  letters  to  our  Italian  friend  Baretti ;  where 
talking  of  the  monastick  life,  you  say  you  do  not  wonder  that 
serious  men  should  put  themselves  under  the  protection  of  a  re- 
ligious order,  when  they  have  found  how  unable  they  are  to  take 
care  of  themselves".  For  my  own  part,  without  affecting  to  be  a 
Socrates,  I  am  sure  I  have  a  more  than  ordinary  struggle  to  main- 
tain with  the  Evil  Principle;  and  all  the  methods  I  can  devise  are 

little  enough  to  keep  me  tolerably  steady  in  the  paths  of  rectitude. 

****** 

'  I  am  ever,  with  the  highest  veneration, 

'  Your  affectionate  humble  servant, 

'Ja!\ies  Boswell.' 

It  appears  from  Johnson's  diary,  that  he  was  this  year  at 
Mr.  Thrale's,  from  before  Midsummer  till  after  Michaelmas, 
and  that  he  afterwards  passed  a  month  at  Oxford.  He  had 
then  contracted  a  great  intimacy  with  Mr.  Chambers  of  that 
University,  afterwards  Sir  Robert  Chambers,  one  of  the 
Judges  in  India ^ 

He  published  nothing  this  year  in  his  own  name ;  but  the 
noble  dedication^  "^  to  the  King,  of  Gwyn's  London  and  West- 
minster Improved,  was  written  by  him  ;  and  he  furnished  the 

'  See  ante,  June  lo,  1761. 

"  Mr.  Croker  says  : — '  It  was  by  visiting  Chambers,  when  a  fellow  of 
University  College,  that  Johnson  became  acquainted  with  Lord  Stow- 
ell  [at  that  time  William  Scott] ;  and  when  Chambers  went  to  India, 
Lord  Stowell,  as  he  expressed  it  to  me,  seemed  to  succeed  to  his  place 
in  Johnson's  friendship.'  Croker's  Boswdl,  p.  90,  note.  John  Scott, 
(Earl  of  Eldon,)  Sir  William  Jones  and  Mr.  Windham,  were  also  mem- 
bers of  University  College.  The  hall  is  adorned  with  the  portraits  of 
these  five  men.     An  engraving  of  Johnson  is  in  the  Common  Room. 

^  It  is  not  easy  to  discover  any  thing  noble  or  even  felicitous  in  this 
Dedication.      Works,  v.  444. 

Preface, 


Aetat.  57.]      Mrs.  Williams  s  Miscellanies.  29 

Preface,!  and  several  of  the  pieces,  which  compose  a  volume 
of  Miscellanies  by  Mrs.  Anna  Williams,  the  blind  lady  who 
had  an  asylum  in  his  house.  Of  these,  there  are  his  '  Epi- 
taph on  Philips \'*  'Translation  of  a  Latin  Epitaph  on  Sir 
Thomas  Hanmer^'f  'Friendship,  an  Ode^'*  and,  'The 
Ant,'^''  a  paraphrase  from  the  Proverbs,  of  which  I  have  a 
copy  in  his  own  hand-writing ;  and,  from  internal  evidence, 

I  ascribe  to  him, '  To  Miss ■,  on  her  giving  the  Authour 

a  gold  and  silk  net-work  Purse  of  her  own  weaving* ;'  f  and, 
'  The  happy  Life  \'  f 

Most  of  the  pieces  in  this  volume  have  evidently  received 
additions  from  his  superiour  pen,  particularly  '  Verses  to  Mr. 
Richardson,  on  his  Sir  Charles  Grandison  ;'  '  The  Excursion;' 
'Reflections  on  a  Grave  digging  in  Westmfnster  Abbey'.' 
There  is  in  this  collection  a  poem  '  On  the  Death  of  Stephen 
Grey,  the  Electrician  ;'  *  which,  on  reading  it,  appeared  to 
me  to  be  undoubtedly  Johnson's.  I  asked  Mrs.  Williams 
whether  it  was  not  his.  'Sir,  (said  she,  with  some  warmth,) 
I  wrote  that  poem  before  I  had  the  honour  of  Dr.  Johnson's 
acquaintance.'  I,  however,  was  so  much  impressed  with  my 
first  notion,  that  I  mentioned  it  to  Johnson,  repeating,  at 
the  same  time,  what  Mrs.  Williams  had  said.  His  answer 
was,  '  It  is  true.  Sir,  that  she  wrote  it  before  she  was  ac- 
quainted with  me ;  but  she  has  not  told  you  that  I  wrote 
it  all  over  again,  except  two  lines'.'     'The  Fountains,' f  a 

'  See  ajitc,  i.  171.  *  See  ante,  i.  205,  note  2. 

'  See  ante,  i.  182.  ''  See  ante,  i.  206,  note  i. 

^  This  poem  is  scarcely  Johnson's,  though  all  the  lines  but  the  third 
in  the  following  couplets  may  be  his. 

'Whose  life  not  sunk  in  sloth  is  free  from  care, 
Nor  tost  by  change,  nor  stagnant  in  despair; 
Who  with  wise  authours  pass  the  instructive  day, 
And  wonder  how  the  moments  stole  away ; 
Who  not  retired  beyond  the  sight  of  life 
Behold  its  weary  cares,  its  noisy  strife.' — p.  18. 

"  Johnson's  additions  to  these  three  poems  are  not  at  all  evident. 
^  In  a  note  to  the  poem  it  is  stated  that  Mrs.  Williams,  when,  be- 
fore her  blindness,  she  was  assisting  Mr.  Grey  in  his  experiments,  was 

beautiful 


30  An  Erse  version  of  the  Bible.       [a.d.  17G6. 

beautiful  little  Fairy  tale  in  prose,  written  with  exquisite 
simplicity,  is  one  of  Johnson's  productions;  and  I  cannot 
with-hold  from  Mrs.  Thrale  the  praise  of  being  the  authour 
of  that  admirable  poem, '  The  Three  Warnings.' 

He  wrote  this  year  a  letter,  not  intended  for  publication, 
which  has,  perhaps,  as  strong  marks  of  his  sentiment  and 
style,  as  any  of  his  compositions.  The  original  is  in  my 
possession.  It  is  addressed  to  the  late  Mr.  William  Drum- 
mond,  bookseller  in  Edinburgh,  a  gentleman  of  good  family, 
but  small  estate,  who  took  arms  for  the  house  of  Stuart  in 
1745  ;  and  during  his  concealment  in  London  till  the  act 
of  general  pardon  came  out  obtained  the  acquaintance  of 
Dr.  Johnson,  who  justly  esteemed  him  as  a  very  worthy 
man.  It  seems,  some  of  the  members  of  the  society  in 
Scotland  for  propagating  Christian  knowledge,  had  opposed 
the  scheme  of  translating  the  holy  scriptures  into  the  Erse 
or  Gaelick  language,  from  political  considerations  of  the  dis- 
advantage of  keeping  up  the  distinction  between  the  High- 
landers and  the  other  inhabitants  of  North- Britain.  Dr. 
Johnson  being  informed  of  this,  I  suppose  by  Mr.  Drum- 
mond,  wrote  with  a  generous  indignation  as  follows : 

'  To  Mr.  William  Drummond. 
'Sir, 

'  I  did  not  expect  to  hear  that  it  could  be,  in  an  assembly  con- 
vened for  the  propagation  of  Christian  knowledge,  a  question  wheth- 
er any  nation  uninstructed  in  religion  should  receive  instruction, 

the  first  that  observed  the  emission  of  the  electrical  spark  from  a  hu- 
man body.     The  best  lines  are  the  following  : — 

'  Now,  hoary  Sage,  pursue  thy  happy  flight, 
With  swifter  motion  haste  to  purer  light, 
Where  Bacon  waits  with  Newton  and  with  Boyle 
To  hail  thy  genius,  and  applaud  thy  toil ; 
Where  intuition  breaks  through  time  and  space. 
And  mocks  experiment's  successive  race ; 
Sees  tardy  Science  toil  at  Nature's  laws, 
And  wonders  how  th'  effect  obscures  the  cause. 
Yet  not  to  deep  research  or  happy  guess 
Is  owed  the  life  of  hope,  the  death  of  peace.'— p.  42. 

or 


Aetat.  57.]     Lang7iagcs  the  pedigree  of  Nations.  31 

or  whether  that  instruction  should  be  imparted  to  them  by  a 
translation  of  the  holy  books  into  their  own  language.  If  obedi- 
ence to  the  will  of  God  be  necessary  to  happiness,  and  knowledge 
of  his  will  be  necessary  to  obedience,  I  know  not  how  he  that  with- 
holds this  knowledge,  or  delays  it,  can  be  said  to  love  his  neigh- 
bour as  himself.  He  that  voluntarily  continues  ignorance,  is  guilty 
of  all  the  crimes  which  ignorance  produces  ;  as  to  him  that  should 
extinguish  the  tapers  of  a  lighthouse,  might  justly  be  imputed  the 
calamities  of  shipwrecks.  Christianity  is  the  highest  perfection  of 
humanity ;  and  as  no  man  is  good  but  as  he  wishes  the  good  of 
others,  no  man  can  be  good  in  the  highest  degree  who  wishes  not 
to  others  the  largest  measures  of  the  greatest  good.  To  omit  for 
a  year,  or  for  a  day,  the  most  efficacious  method  of  advancing 
Christianity,  in  compliance  with  any  purposes  that  terminate  on 
this  side  of  the  grave,  is  a  crime  of  which  I  know  not  that  the 
world  has  yet  had  an  example,  except  in  the  practice  of  the  plant- 
ers of  America ',  a  race  of  mortals  whom,  I  suppose,  no  other  man 
wishes  to  resemble^. 

'  The  Papists  have,  indeed,  denied  to  the  laity  the  use  of  the 
bible ;  but  this  prohibition,  in  few  places  now  very  rigorously  en- 
forced, is  defended  by  arguments,  which  have  for  their  foundation 
the  care  of  souls.  To  obscure,  upon  motives  merely  political,  the 
light  of  revelation,  is  a  practice  reserved  for  the  reformed ;  and, 
surely,  the  blackest  midnight  of  popery  is  meridian  sunshine  to 
such  a  reformation.  I  am  not  very  willing  that  any  language 
should  be  totally  extinguished.  The  similitude  and  derivation  of 
languages  afford  the  most  indubitable  proof  of  the  traduction  of 
nations,  and  the  genealogy  of  mankind  ^  They  add  often  physical 
certainty  to  historical  evidence  ;  and  often  supply  the  only  evidence 
of  ancient  migrations,  and  of  the  revolutions  of  ages  which  left  no 
written  monuments  behind  them. 

'  A  gentleman,  writing  from  Virginia  to  John  Wesley,  in  1755,  about 
the  need  of  educating  the  negro  slaves  in  religion,  says  : — '  Their  mas- 
ters generally  neglect  them,  as  though  immortality  was  not  the  privi- 
lege of  their  souls  in  common  with  their  own.'  Wesley's y^jwrwrt/,  ii. 
288.  But  much  nearer  home  Johnson  might  have  found  this  criminal 
enforcement  of  ignorance.  Burke,  writing  in  1779,  about  the  Irish, 
accuses  the  legislature  of  'condemning  a  million  and  a  half  of  people 
to  ignorance,  according  to  act  of  parliament.'     Burke's  Corrcs.  ii.  294. 

"^  S^Gpost,  March  21,  1775,  and  Appendix. 

'  John.son  said  very  finely: — 'Languages  are  the  pedigree  of  na- 
tions.'    Boswcll's  Hebrides,  Sept.  18,  1773. 

*  Evcrv 


32  The  translation  of  the  Erse  Bible,   [a.d.  1766. 

'  Every  man's  opinions,  at  least  his  desires,  are  a  little  influenced 
by  his  favourite  studies.  My  zeal  for  languages  may  seem,  per- 
haps, rather  over-heated,  even  to  those  by  whom  I  desire  to  be 
well-esteemed.  To  those  who  have  nothing  in  their  thoughts  but 
trade  or  policy,  present  power,  or  present  money,  I  should  not 
think  it  necessary  to  defend  my  opinions  ;  but  with  men  of  letters 
I  would  not  unwillingly  compound,  by  wishing  the  continuance  of 
every  language,  however  narrow  in  its  extent,  or  however  incom- 
modious for  common  purposes,  till  it  is  reposited  in  some  version 
of  a  known  book,  that  it  may  be  always  hereafter  examined  and 
compared  with  other  languages,  and  then  permitting  its  disuse. 
For  this  purpose,  the  translation  of  the  bible  is  most  to  be  desired. 
It  is  not  certain  that  the  same  method  will  not  preserve  the  High- 
land language,  for  the  purposes  of  learning,  and  abolish  it  from 
daily  use.  When  the  Highlanders  read  the  Bible,  they  will  natu- 
rally wish  to  have  its  obscurities  cleared,  and  to  know  the  history, 
collateral  or  appendant.  Knowledge  always  desires  increase  :  it  is 
like  fire,  which  must  first  be  kindled  by  some  external  agent,  but 
which  will  afterwards  propagate  itself.  When  they  once  desire  to 
learn,  they  will  naturally  have  recourse  to  the  nearest  language  by 
which  that  desire  can  be  gratified ;  and  one  will  tell  another  that 
if  he  would  attain  knowledge,  he  must  learn  English. 

'  This  speculation  may,  perhaps,  be  thought  more  subtle  than 
the  grossness  of  real  life  will  easily  admit.  Let  it,  however,  be  re- 
membered, that  the  efficacy  of  ignorance  has  been  long  tried,  and 
has  not  produced  the  consequence  expected.  Let  knowledge, 
therefore,  take  its  turn ;  and  let  the  patrons  of  privation  stand 
awhile  aside,  and  admit  the  operation  of  positive  principles. 

'  You  will  be  pleased.  Sir,  to  assure  the  worthy  man  who  is  em- 
ployed in  the  new  translation',  that  he  has  my  wishes  for  his 

'  The  Rev.  Mr.  John  Campbell,  Minister  of  the  Parish  of  Kippen, 
near  Stirling,  who  has  lately  favoured  me  with  a  long,  intelligent,  and 
very  obliging  letter  upon  this  work,  makes  the  following  remark : — 
'  Dr.  Johnson  has  alluded  to  the  worthy  man  employed  in  the  transla- 
tion of  the  New  Testament.  Might  not  this  have  afforded  you  an 
opportunity  of  paying  a  proper  tribute  of  respect  to  the  memory  of 
the  Rev.  Mr.  James  Stuart,  late  Minister  of  Killin,  distinguished  by 
his  eminent  Piety,  Learning  and  Taste  .^  The  amiable  simplicity  of 
his  life,  his  warm  benevolence,  his  indefatigable  and  successful  exer- 
tions for  civilizing  and  improving  the  Parish  of  which  he  was  Minister 
for  upwards  of  fifty  years,  entitle  him  to  the  gratitude  of  his  country, 
and  the  veneration  of  all  good  men.     It  certainly  would  be  a  pity,  if 

success ; 


Aetat.  57.]     The  tf'atislatioii  of  the  Erse  Bible.  33 

success ;   and  if  here  or  at  Oxford  I  can  be  of  any  use,  that  I 
shall  think  it  more  than  honour  to  promote  his  undertaking. 
'  I  am  sorry  that  I  delayed  so  long  to  write. 
'  I  am,  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  Johnson's-court,  Fleet-street, 
Aug.  13,  1766.' 

The  opponents  of  this  pious  scheme  being  made  ashamed 
of  their  conduct,  the  benevolent  undertaking  was  allowed  to 
go  on '. 

The  following  letters,  though  not  written  till  the  year 
after,  being  chiefly  upon  the  same  subject,  are  here  inserted : 

'To  Mr.  William  Druimmond. 

'Dear  Sir, 

'  That  my  letter  should  have  had  such  effects  as  you  mention, 
gives  me  great  pleasure.  I  hope  you  do  not  flatter  me  by  imput- 
ing to  me  more  good  than  I  have  really  done.  Those  whom  my 
arguments  have  persuaded  to  change  their  opinion,  shew  such 
modesty  and  candour  as  deserve  great  praise. 

'  I  hope  the  worthy  translator  goes  diligently  forward.  He  has 
a  higher  reward  in  prospect  than  any  honours  which  this  world 
can  bestow.     I  wish  I  could  be  useful  to  him. 

'  The  publication  of  my  letter,  if  it  could  be  of  use  in  a  cause  to 
which  all  other  causes  are  nothing,  I  should  not  prohibit.  But 
first,  I  would  have  you  consider  whether  the  publication  will  really 
do  any  good ;  next,  whether  by  printing  and  distributing  a  very 
small  number,  you  may  not  attain  all  that  you  propose ;  and,  what 
perhaps  I  should  have  said  first,  whether  the  letter,  which  I  do 
not  now  perfectly  remember,  be  fit  to  be  printed. 

'  If  you  can  consult  Dr.  Robertson,  to  whom  I  am  a  little  known, 

such  a  character  should  be  permitted  to  sink  into  oblivion.'     Bos- 

WELL. 

'  Seven  years  later  Johnson  received  from  the  Society  some  relig- 
ious works  in  Erse.  See  j?J(7.r/,  June  24,  1774.  Yet  in  his  journey  to 
the  Hebrides,  in  1773  {Works,  ix.  101 ),  he  had  to  record  of  the  paro- 
chial schools  in  those  islands  that  '  by  the  rule  of  their  institution 
they  teach  only  English,  so  that  the  natives  read  a  language  which 
they  may  never  use  or  understand.' 

11.-3  I  shall 


A  poor  relation.  [a.d.  1766. 


I  shall  be  satisfied  about  the  propriety  of  whatever  he  shall  direct. 
If  he  thinks  that  it  should  be  printed,  I  entreat  him  to  revise  it ; 
there  may,  perhaps,  be  some  negligent  lines  written,  and  whatever 
is  amiss,  he  knows  very  well  how  to  rectify'. 

'  Be  pleased  to  let  me  know,  from  time  to  time,  how  this  excel- 
lent design  goes  forward. 

'  Make  my  compliments  to  young  Mr.  Drummond,  whom  I  hope 
you  will  live  to  see  such  as  you  desire  him. 

'  I  have  not  lately  seen  Mr.  Elphinston  ^  but  believe  him  to  be 
prosperous.     I  shall  be  glad  to  hear  the  same  of  you,  for  I  am,  Sir, 
'  Your  affectionate  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson,' 
'  Johnson's-court,  Fleet-street, 
April  21,  1767.' 

'To  THE  Same. 

'Sir, 

'  I  returned  this  week  from  the  country,  after  an  absence  of 
near  six  months,  and  found  your  letter  with  many  others,  which  I 
should  have  answered  sooner,  if  I  had  sooner  seen  them. 

'  Dr,  Robertson's  opinion  was  surely  right.  Men  should  not  be 
told  of  the  faults  which  they  have  mended.  I  am  glad  the  old 
language  is  taught,  and  honour  the  translator  as  a  man  whom  God 
has  distinguished  by  the  high  office  of  propagating  his  word. 

'  I  must  take  the  liberty  of  engaging  you  in  an  office  of  charity. 
Mrs.  Heely,  the  wife  of  Mr.  Heely,  who  had  lately  some  office  in 
your  theatre,  is  my  near  relation,  and  now  in  great  distress.  They 
wrote  me  word  of  their  situation  some  time  ago,  to  which  I  re- 
turned them  an  answer  which  raised  hopes  of  more  than  it  is  proper 
for  me  to  give  them.  Their  representation  of  their  affairs  I  have 
discovered  to  be  such  as  cannot  be  trusted ;  and  at  this  distance, 
though  their  case  requires  haste,  I  know  not  how  to  act.  She,  or 
her  daughters,  may  be  heard  of  at  Canongate  Head.  I  must  beg, 
Sir,  that  you  will  enquire  after  them,  and  let  me  know  what  is  to 
be  done.  I  am  willing  to  go  to  ten  pounds,  and  will  transmit  you 
such  a  sum,  if  upon  examination  you  find  it  likely  to  be  of  use. 
If  they  are  in  immediate  v/ant,  advance  them  what  you  think  proper. 

'  This  paragraph  shews  Jo'nnson's  real  estimation  of  the  character 
and  abilities  of  the  celebrated  Scottish  Historian,  however  lightly,  in 
a  moment  of  caprice,  he  may  have  spoken  of  his  works.     Boswell. 

"  See  ante,  i.  243. 

What 


Aetat.  57.]  Cuthbevt  S/iaw.  35 

What  I  could  do,  I  would  do  for  the  women,  having  no  great  rea- 
son to  pay  much  regard  to  Heely  himself '. 

'  I  believe  you  may  receive  some  intelligence  from  Mrs.  Baker, 
of  the  theatre,  whose  letter  I  received  at  the  same  time  with  yours  ; 
and  to  whom,  if  you  see  her,  you  will  make  my  excuse  for  the 
seeming  neglect  of  answering  her. 

'  Whatever  you  advance  within  ten  pounds  shall  be  immediately 

returned  to  you,  or  paid  as  you  shall  order.     I  trust  wholly  to  your 

judgement. 

'  I  am.  Sir,  &c. 

'  Sam.  Johnson,' 
'  London,  Johnson's-court,  Fleet-street, 
Oct.  24,  1767.' 

Mr.  Cuthbert  Sha^v^  alike  distinguished  by  his  genius,  mis- 
fortunes, and  misconduct,  published  this  year  a  poem,  called 
'  The  Race,  by  Mercurius  Spur,  Esq.  ^'  in  which  he  whimsi- 
cally made  the  living  poets  of  England  contend  for  pre-emi- 
nence of  fame  by  running: 

'  Prove  by  their  heels  the  prowess  of  the  head.' 

In  this  poem  there  was  the  following  portrait  of  Johnson : 

'  Here  Johnson  comes, — unblest  with  outward  grace, 
His  rigid  morals  stamp'd  upon  his  face. 
While  strong  conceptions  struggle  in  his  brain ; 
(For  even  wit  is  brought  to-bed  with  pain  :) 

'  This  is  the  person  concerning  whom  Sir  John  Hawkins  has 
thrown  out  very  unwarrantable  reflections  both  against  Dr.  Johnson 
and  Mr.  Francis  Barber.  Boswell.  See  post,  under  Oct.  20,  1784. 
In  1775,  Heely,  it  appears,  applied  through  Johnson  for  the  post  that 
was  soon  to  be  vacant  of  '  master  of  the  tap '  at  Ranelagh  House. 
'  He  seems,'  wrote  Johnson,  in  forwarding  his  letter  of  application, 
'to  have  a  genius  for  an  alehouse.'  Piozzi  Letters,  x.iio.  See  also 
post,  Aug.  12,  1784. 

"  Sec  an  account  of  him  in  the  European  Magazine,  Jan.  1786.  Bos- 
WELL.  There  we  learn  that  he  was  in  his  time  a  grammar-school 
usher,  actor,  poet,  the  pufhng  partner  in  a  quack  medicine,  and  tutor 
to  a  youthful  Earl.  He  was  suspected  of  levying  blackmail  by  threats 
of  satiric  publications,  and  he  suffered  from  a  disease  which  rendered 
him  an  object  almost  offensive  to  sight.  He  was  born  in  1738  or  1739, 
and  died  in  1771. 

^  It  was  republished  in  T/ic  Repository,  ii.  227,  edition  of  1790. 

To 


2,6  The  Hon.  Thomas  Hervey.  [a.d.  1766. 

To  view  him,  porters  with  their  loads  would  rest, 
And  babes  cling  frighted  to  the  nurse's  breast. 
With  looks  convuls'd  he  roars  in  pompous  strain, 
And,  like  an  angry  lion,  shakes  his  mane. 
The  Nine,  with  terrour  struck,  who  ne'er  had  seen, 
Aught  human  with  so  horrible  a  mien. 
Debating  whether  they  should  stay  or  run. 
Virtue  steps  forth,  and  claims  him  for  her  son : 
With  gentle  speech  she  warns  him  now  to  yield, 
Nor  stain  his  glories  in  the  doubtful  field ; 
But  wrapt  in  conscious  worth,  content  sit  down, 
Since  Fame,  resolv'd  his  various  pleas  to  crown. 
Though  forc'd  his  present  claim  to  disavow, 
/  Had  long  reserv'd  a  chaplet  for  his  brow. 
He  bows,  obeys ;  for  time  shall  first  expire, 
Ere  Johnson  stay,  when  Virtue  bids  retire.' 

The  Honourable  Thomas  Hervey '  and  his  lady  having 
unhappily  disagreed,  and  being  about  to  separate,  Johnson 
interfered  as  their  friend,  and  wrote  him  a  letter  of  expostu- 
lation, which  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  ;  but  the  substance 
of  it  is  ascertained  by  a  letter  to  Johnson  in  answer  to  it, 
which  Mr.  Hervey  printed.  The  occasion  of  this  corre- 
spondence between  Dr.  Johnson  and  Mr.  Hervey,  was  thus 
related  to  me  by  Mr.  Beauclerk\  '  Tom  Hervey  had  a  great 
liking  for  Johnson,  and  in  his  will  had  left  him  a  legacy  of 
fifty  pounds.  One  day  he  said  to  me,  "  Johnson  may  want 
this  money  now,  more  than  afterwards.  I  have  a  mind  to 
give  it  him  directly.  Will  you  be  so  good  as  to  carry  a  fifty 
pound  note  from  me  to  him?"  This  I  positively  refused  to 
do,  as  he  might,  perhaps,  have  knocked  me  down  for  insult- 
ing him,  and  have  afterwards  put  the  note  in  his  pocket. 
But  I  said,  if  Hervey  would  write  him  a  letter,  and  enclose  a 

'  The  Hon.  Thomas  Hervey,  whose  Letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Hatuner  in 
1742  was  much  read  at  that  time.  He  was  the  second  son  of  John, 
first  Earl  of  Bristol,  and  one  of  the  brothers  of  Johnson's  early  friend, 
Henry  Hervey.     He  died  Jan.  20,  1775.     M  alone.     See  post,  April  6, 

1775- 
"^  See  post,  under  Sept.  22,  1777,  for  another  story  told  by  Beauclerk 

against  Johnson  of  a  Mr.  Hervey. 

fifty 


Aetat.  58.]     The  library  in  the  Qtieeiis  house.  37 

fifty  pound  note,  I  should  take  care  to  deliver  it.  He  ac- 
cordingly did  write  him  a  letter,  mentioning  that  he  was 
only  paying  a  legacy  a  little  sooner.  To  his  letter  he  added, 
"P.S.  I  am  going  to  part  zvitJi  my  zvifcy  Johnson  then 
wrote  to  him,  saying  nothing  of  the  note,  but  remonstrating 
with  him  against  parting  with  his  wife.' 

When  I  mentioned  to  Johnson  this  story,  in  as  delicate 
terms  as  I  could,  he  told  me  that  the  fifty  pound  note  was 
given  to  him  by  Mr.  Hervey  in  consideration  of  his  having 
written  for  him  a  pamphlet  against  Sir  Charles  Hanbury 
Williams,  who,  Mr.  Hervey  imagined,  was  the  authour  of  an 
attack  upon  him  ;  but  that  it  was  afterwards  discovered  to 
be  the  work  of  a  garreteer  who  wrote  The  FooP  :  the  pam- 
phlet therefore  against  Sir  Charles  was  not  printed  \ 

In  February,  1767,  there  happened  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable incidents  of  Johnson's  life,  which  gratified  his  m.o- 
narchical  enthusiasm,  and  which  he  loved  to  relate  with  all  its 
circumstances,  when  requested  by  his  friends.  This  was  his 
being  honoured  by  a  private  conversation  with  his  Majesty, 
in  the  library  at  the  Queen's  house  \     He  had  frequently 

'  Essays  published  in  the  Daily  Gazetteer  and  afterwards  collected 
into  two  vols.     Ce}it.  Mag.  for  1748,  p.  48. 

°  Mr.  Croker  regrets  that  Johnson  employed  his  pen  for  hire  in 
Hervey 's  'disgusting  squabbles,'  and  in  a  long  note  describes  Her- 
vey's  letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Hanmer  with  whose  wife  he  had  eloped. 
But  the  attack  to  which  Johnson  was  hired  to  reply  was  not  made  by 
Hanmer,  but,  as  was  supposed,  by  Sir  C.  H.  Williams.  Because  a  man 
has  wronged  another,  he  is  not  therefore  to  submit  to  the  attacks  of 
a  third.  Williams,  moreover,  it  must  be  remembered,  was  himself  a 
man  of  licentious  character. 

^  Buckingham  House,  bought  in  1761,  by  George  HI,  and  settled  on 
Queen  Charlotte.  The  present  Buckingham  Palace  occupies  the  site. 
P.  Cunningham.  Here,  according  to  Hawkins  {Life,  p.  470),  John- 
son met  the  Prince  of  Wales  (George  IV)  when  a  child,  'and  enquired 
as  to  his  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures ;  the  Prince  in  his  answers  gave 
him  great  satisfaction.'  Horace  Walpole,  writing  of  the  Prince  at  the 
age  of  nineteen,  says  {Journal  of  the  Reign  of  George  III,  ii.  503)  : — 
'  Nothing  was  coarser  than  his  conversation  and  phrases ;  and  it  made 
men  smile  to  find  that  in  the  palace  of  piety  and  pride  his  Royal  High- 
ness had  learnt  nothing  but  the  dialect  of  footmen  and  grooms.' 

visited 


38         Johnson's  co7iversation  with  the  King.    [a.d.  1767. 

visited  those  splendid  rooms  and  noble  collection  of  books', 
which  he  used  to  say  was  more  numerous  and  curious  than 
he  supposed  any  person  could  have  made  in  the  time  which 
the  King  had  employed.  Mr.  Barnard,  the  librarian,  took 
care  that  he  should  have  every  accommodation  that  could 
contribute  to  his  ease  and  convenience,  while  indulging  his 
literary  taste  in  that  place ;  so  that  he  had  here  a  very  agree- 
able resource  at  leisure  hours. 

His  Majesty  having  been  informed  of  his  occasional  visits, 
was  pleased  to  signify  a  desire  that  he  should  be  told  when 
Dr.  Johnson  came  next  to  the  library.  Accordingly,  the  next 
time  that  Johnson  did  come,  as  soon  as  he  was  fairly  engaged 
with  a  book,  on  which,  while  he  sat  by  the  fire,  he  seemed 
quite  intent,  Mr.  Barnard  stole  round  to  the  apartment  where 
the  King  was,  and,  in  obedience  to  his  Majesty's  commands, 
mentioned  that  Dr.  Johnson  was  then  in  the  library.  His 
Majesty  said  he  was  at  leisure,  and  would  go  to  him  ;  upon 
which  Mr.  Barnard  took  one  of  the  candles  that  stood  on 
the  King's  table,  and  lighted  his  Majesty  through  a  suite  of 
rooms,  till  they  came  to  a  private  door  into  the  library,  of 
which  his  Majesty  had  the  key.  Being  entered,  Mr.  Barnard 
stepped  forward  hastily  to  Dr.  Johnson,  who  was  still  in  a 
profound  study,  and  whispered  him,  '  Sir,  here  is  the  King.' 
Johnson  started  up,  and  stood  still.  His  Majesty  approached 
him,  and  at  once  was  courteously  easy^ 

'  Dr.  Johnson  had  the  honour  of  contributing  his  assistance  towards 
the  formation  of  this  Hbrary ;  for  I  have  read  a  long  letter  from  him 
to  Mr.  Barnard,  giving  the  most  masterly  instructions  on  the  subject. 
I  wished  much  to  have  gratified  my  readers  with  the  perusal  of  this 
letter,  and  have  reason  to  think  that  his  Majesty  would  have  been 
graciously  pleased  to  permit  its  publication ;  but  Mr.  Barnard,  to 
whom  I  applied,  declined  it  '  on  his  own  account.'  Boswell.  It  is 
given  in  Mr.  Croker's  edition,  p.  196. 

^  The  particulars  of  this  conversation  I  have  been  at  great  pains  to 
collect  with  the  utmost  authenticity  from  Dr.  Johnson's  own  detail  to 
myself;  from  Mr.  Langton  who  was  present  when  he  gave  an  account 
of  it  to  Dr.  Joseph  Warton,  and  several  other  friends,  at  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds's ;  from  Mr.  Barnard  ;  from  the  copy  of  a  letter  written  by 
the  late  Mr.  Strahan  the  printer,  to  Bishop  Warburton  ;  and  from  a 

His 


Aetat.  58.]     J 011718 on  s  conversation  with  the  King.         39 

His  Majesty  began  by  observing,  that  he  understood  he 
came  sometimes  to  the  Hbrary ;  and  then  mentioning  his 
having  heard  that  the  Doctor  had  been  lately  at  Oxford ', 
asked  him  if  he  was  not  fond  of  going  thither.  To  which 
Johnson  answered,  that  he  was  indeed  fond  of  going  to  Ox- 
ford sometimes,  but  was  hkewise  glad  to  come  back  again. 
The  King  then  asked  him  what  they  were  doing  at  Oxford. 
Johnson  answered,  he  could  not  much  commend  their  dili- 
gence, but  that  in  some  respects  they  were  mended,  for  they 
had  put  their  press  under  better  regulations,  and  were  at 
that  time  printing  Polybius.  He  was  then  asked  whether 
there  were  better  libraries  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge.  He 
answered,  he  believed  the  Bodleian  was  larger  than  any 
they  had  at  Cambridge  ;  at  the  same  time  adding, '  I  hope, 
whether  we  have  more  books  or  not  than  they  have  at  Cam- 
bridge, we  shall  make  as  good  use  of  them  as  they  do.' 
Being  asked  whether  All -Souls  or  Christ -Church  library'' 

minute,  the  original  of  which  is  among  the  papers  of  the  late  Sir 
James  Caldwell,  and  a  copy  of  which  was  most  obligingly  obtained  for 
me  from  his  son  Sir  John  Caldwell,  by  Sir  Francis  Lumm.  To  all 
these  gentlemen  I  beg  leave  to  make  my  grateful  acknowledgements, 
and  particularly  to  Sir  Francis  Lumm,  who  was  pleased  to  take  a  great 
deal  of  trouble,  and  even  had  the  minute  laid  before  the  King  by  Lord 
Caermarthen,  now  Duke  of  Leeds,  then  one  of  his  Majesty's  Principal 
Secretaries  of  State,  who  announced  to  Sir  Francis  the  Royal  pleas- 
ure concerning  it  by  a  letter,  in  these  words :  '  I  have  the  King's  com- 
mands to  assure  you,  Sir,  how  sensible  his  Majesty  is  of  your  attention 
in  communicating  the  minute  of  the  conversation  previous  to  its  pub- 
lication. As  there  appears  no  objection  to  your  complying  with  Mr. 
Boswell's  wishes  on  the  subject,  you  are  at  full  liberty  to  deliver  it  to 
that  gentleman,  to  make  such  use  of  in  his  Life  of  Dr.  Johnson,  as  he 
may  think  proper.'  Boswell.  In  1790,  Boswell  [mblished  in  a  quarto 
sheet  of  eight  pages  'A  conversation  between  His  Most  Sacred  Majesty 
George  III  and  Satnuel  Johnson,  LLD.  Illustrated  with  Observations. 
By  James  Boswell,  Esq.  London.  Printed  by  Henry  Baldwin,  for 
Charles  Dilly  in  the  Poultry.  MDCCXC.  Price  Half-a-Guinea.  En- 
tered in  the  Hall-Book  of  the  Company  of  Stationers'  It  is  of  the  same 
impression  as  the  first  edition  of  the  Life  of  Johnson. 

'  After  Michaelmas,  1766.     Sec  a;/A',  ii.  28. 

'  See  post.  May  31,  1769,  note. 

was 


40  Compliments  paid  by  a  King.        [a.d.  1767. 

was  the  largest,  he  answered, '  All-Souls  library  is  the  largest 
we  have,  except  the  Bodleian.'  '  Aye,  (said  the  King,)  that 
is  the  publick  librar}\' 

His  Majesty  enquired  if  he  was  then  writing  any  thing. 
He  answered,  he  was  not,  for  he  had  pretty  well  told  the 
Avorld  what  he  knew,  and  must  now  read  to  acquire  more 
knowledge '.  The  King,  as  it  should  seem  with  a  view  to 
urge  him  to  rely  on  his  own  stores  as  an  original  writer, 
and  to  continue  his  labours  \  then  said,  '  I  do  not  think  you 
borrow  much  from  any  body.'  Johnson  said,  he  thought 
he  had  already  done  his  part  as  a  writer.  '  I  should  have 
thought  so  too,  (said  the  King,)  if  you  had  not  written  so 
well.' — Johnson  observed  to  me,  upon  this,  that  '  No  man 
could  have  paid  a  handsomer  compliment ;  and  it  was  fit 
for  a  King  to  pay.  It  was  decisive.'  When  asked  by  an- 
other friend,  at  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds's,  whether  he  made  any 
reply  to  this  high  compliment,  he  answered, '  No,  Sir.  When 
the  King  had  said  it,  it  was  to  be  so.  It  was  not  for  me  to 
bandy  civilities  with  my  Sovereign  \'  Perhaps  no  man  who 
had  spent  his  whole  life  in  courts  could  have  shewn  a  more 
nice  and  dignified  sense  of  true  politeness,  than  Johnson  did 
in  this  instance. 

His  Majesty  having  observed  to  him  that  he  supposed 

'  Writing  to  Langton,  on  May  lo,  of  the  year  before  he  had  said, '  I 
read  more  than  I  did.  I  hope  something  will  yet  come  on  it.'  Aiitc, 
ii.  22. 

-  Bosvvell  and  Goldsmith  had  in  like  manner  urged  him  '  to  con- 
tinue his  labours.'     See  ante,  i.  461,  and  ii.  17. 

^  Johnson  had  written  to  Lord  Chesterfield  in  the  Pla7i  of  his  Dic- 
tionary {JVor^s.v.  19), '  Ausonius  thought  that  modesty  forbade  him 
to  plead  inability  for  a  task  to  which  Coesar  had  judged  him  equal : — 
Cur  me  posse  negem  posse  quod  ille  piitatf  We  may  compare  also  a 
passage  in  Mme.  D'Arblay's  Diary  (ii.  377)  :— 'The  King.  "I  believe 
there  is  no  constraint  to  be  put  upon  real  genius ;  nothing  but  incli- 
nation can  set  it  to  work.  Miss  Burney,  however,  knows  best."  And 
then  hastily  returning  to  me  he  cried  :  "  What.^  what.>"  "  No,  sir,  I 
— I — believe  not,  certainly,"  quoth  I,  very  awkwardly,  for  I  seemed 
taking  a  violent  compliment  only  as  my  due  ;  but  I  knew  not  how  to 
put  him  off  as  I  would  another  person.' 

he 


Aetat.  58.]  Johnsoiis  reading.  41 

he  must  have  read  a  great  deal ;  Johnson  answered,  that  he 
thought  more  than  he  read ' ;  that  he  had  read  a  great  deal 
in  the  early  part  of  his  life,  but  having  fallen  into  ill  health, 
he  had  not  been  able  to  read  much,  compared  with  others : 
for  instance,  he  said  he  had  not  read  much,  compared  with 
Dr.  Warburton  \  Upon  which  the  King  said,  that  he  heard 
Dr.  Warburton  was  a  man  of  such  general  knowledge,  that 
you  could  scarce  talk  with  him  on  any  subject  on  which  he 
was  not  qualified  to  speak ;  and  that  his  learning  resembled 
Garrick's  acting,  in  its  universality  \    His  Majesty  then  talked 

'  In  one  part  of  the  character  of  Pope  {Works, \\\\.  319),  Johnson 
seems  to  be  describing  himself : — '  He  certainly  was  in  his  early  life  a 
man  of  great  literary  curiosity;  and  when  he  wrote  hS.?, Essay  on  Crit- 
ictsvi  had  for  his  age  a  very  wide  acquaintance  with  books.  When  he 
entered  into  the  living  world,  it  seems  to  have  happened  to  him  as  to 
many  others,  that  he  was  less  attentive  to  dead  masters ;  he  studied 
in  the  academy  of  Paracelsus,  and  made  the  universe  his  favourite  vol- 
ume... .  His  frequent  references  to  histoiy,  his  allusions  to  various 
kinds  of  knowledge,  and  his  images  selected  from  art  and  nature,  with 
his  observations  on  the  operations  of  the  mind  and  the  modes  of  life, 
show  an  intelligence  perpetually  on  the  wing,  excursive,  vigorous,  and 
diligent,  eager  to  pursue  knowledge,  and  attentive  to  retain  it.'  See 
ante,  i.  65. 

"  Johnson  thus  describes  Warburton  {Works,  viii.  288): — 'About 
this  time  [1732]  Warburton  began  to  make  his  appearance  in  the  first 
ranks  of  learning.  He  was  a  man  of  vigorous  faculties,  a  mind  fervid 
and  vehement,  supplied  by  incessant  and  unlimited  enquiry,  with  won- 
derful extent  and  variety  of  knowledge.'  Cradock  {Monoz'rs,  i.  188) 
says  that  '  Bishop  Hurd  always  wondered  where  it  was  possible  for 
Warburton  to  meet  with  certain  anecdotes  with  which  not  only  his 
conversation,  but  likewise  his  writings,  abounded.  "  I  could  have 
readily  informed  him,"  said  Mrs.  Warburton,  "  for,  when  we  passed 
our  winters  in  London,  he  would  often,  after  his  long  and  severe  stud- 
ies, send  out  for  a  whole  basketful  of  books  from  the  circulating  libra- 
ries ;  and  at  times  I  have  gone  into  his  study,  and  found  him  laughing, 
though  alone."  '  Lord  Macaulay  was,  in  this  respect,  the  Warburton 
of  our  age. 

^  The  Rev.  Mr.  Strahan  clearly  recollects  having  been  told  by  John- 
son, that  the  King  observed  that  I^ope  made  Warburton  a  Bishop. 
'  True,  Sir,  (said  Johnson,)  but  Warburton  did  inore  for  Pope  ;  he  made 
him  a  Christian  :'  alluding,  no  doubt,  to  his  ingenious  Comments  on 
the  Essay  on  Man.     Boswell.     The  statements  both  of  the  King  and 

of 


42  VVarbiirton  and  Lowth.  [a.d.  1767. 

of  the  controversy  between  Warburton  and  Lowth,  which  he 
seemed  to  have  read,  and  asked  Johnson  what  he  thought  of 
it.  Johnson  answered,  '  Warburton  has  most  general,  most 
scholastick  learning  ;  Lowth  is  the  more  correct  scholar.  I  do 
not  know  which  of  them  calls  names  best.'  The  King  was 
pleased  to  say  he  was  of  the  same  opinion  ;  adding, '  You  do 
not  think,  then.  Dr.  Johnson,  that  there  was  much  argument 
in  the  case.'  Johnson  said,  he  did  not  think  there  was'. 
'  Why  truly,  (said  the  King,)  when  once  it  comes  to  calling 
names,  argument  is  pretty  well  at  an  end.' 

His  Majesty  then  asked  him  what  he  thought  of  Lord 

Johnson  are  supported  by  two  passages  in  Johnson's  Life  of  Pope 
(  Works,  viii.  289,  290).  He  says  of  Warburton's  Comments  : — '  Pope, 
who  probably  began  to  doubt  the  tendency  of  his  own  work,  was  glad 
that  the  positions,  of  which  he  perceived  himself  not  to  know  the  full 
meaning,  could  by  any  mode  of  interpretation  be  made  to  mean  well. 
.  . .  From  this  time  Pope  lived  in  the  closest  intimacy  with  his  com- 
mentator, and  amply  rewarded  his  kindness  and  his  zeal ;  for  he  intro- 
duced him  to  Mr.  Murray,  by  whose  interest  he  became  preacher  at 
Lincoln's  Inn ;  and  to  Mr.  Allen,  who  gave  him  his  niece  and  his  es- 
tate, and  by  consequence  a  bishoprick.'  See  also  the  account  given 
by  Johnson,  in  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  21,  1773.  Bishop  Law  in  his 
Revised  Preface  to  Archbishop  King's  Origin  of  Evil  (\']%\),-^.y^v\\., 
writes  : — '  I  had  now  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  that  those  very  princi- 
ples which  had  been  maintained  by  Archbishop  King  were  adopted 
by  Mr.  Pope  in  his  Essay  on  Man  ;  this  I  used  to  recollect,  and  some- 
times relate,  with  pleasure,  conceiving  that  such  an  account  did  no  less 
honour  to  the  poet  than  to  our  philosopher;  but  was  soon  made  to 
understand  that  any  thing  of  that  kind  was  taken  highly  amiss  by 
one  [WarburtonJ  who  had  once  held  the  doctrine  of  that  same  Essay 
to  be  rank  atheism,  but  afterwards  turned  a  warm  advocate  for  it, 
and  thought  proper  to  deny  the  account  above-mentioned,  with  heavy 
menaces  against  those  who  presumed  to  insinuate  that  Pope  bor- 
rowed anything  from  any  man  whatsoever.'     See  post,  Oct.  10,  1779. 

'  In  Gibbon's  Metnoirs,  a  fine  passage  is  quoted  from  Lowth's  De- 
fence of  the  University  of  Oxford,  against  Warburton's  reproaches. 
'  I  transcribe  with  pleasure  this  eloquent  passage,'  writes  Gibbon, 
'  without  inquiring  whether  in  this  angry  controversy  the  spirit  of 
Lowth  himself  is  purified  from  the  intolerant  zeal  which  Warburton 
had  ascribed  to  the  genius  of  the  place.'  Gibbon's  Misc.  Works,  i.  47. 
See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  28,  1773. 

Lyttelton's 


Aetat.  58.]  Dr.  Hill.  43 

Lyttelton's  History,  which  was  then  just  pubHshed '.  John- 
son said,  he  thought  his  style  pretty  good,  but  that  he  had 
blamed  Henry  the  Second  rather  too  much.  '  Why,  (said 
the  King,)  they  seldom  do  these  things  by  halves.'  '  No, 
Sir,  (answered  Johnson,)  not  to  Kings.'  But  fearing  to  be 
misunderstood,  he  proceeded  to  explain  himself ;  and  im- 
mediately subjoined,  '  That  for  those  who  spoke  worse  of 
Kings  than  they  deserved,  he  could  find  no  excuse  ;  but  that 
he  could  more  easily  conceive  how  some  might  speak  better 
of  them  than -they  deserved,  without  any  ill  intention  ;  for,  as 
Kings  had  much  in  their  power  to  give,  those  who  were 
favoured  by  them  would  frequently,  from  gratitude,  exag- 
gerate their  praises  ;  and  as  this  proceeded  from  a  good 
motive,  it  was  certainly  excusable,  as  far  as  errour  could  be 
excusable.' 

The  King  then  asked  him  what  he  thought  of  Dr.  HilP. 

'  See/fj/,  April  15,  1773,  where  Johnson  says  that  Lyttelton  '  in  his 
History  wrote  the  most  vulgar  Whiggism,'  and  April  10,  1776.  Gib- 
bon, who  had  reviewed  it  this  year,  says  in  his  Memoirs  {il/isc.  Works, 
i.  207)  .  '  The  public  has  ratified  my  judgment  of  that  voluminous 
work,  in  which  sense  and  learning  are  not  illuminated  by  a  ray  of 
genius.' 

"^  Hawkins  says  of  him  (Z//i',  p.  2 1 1 )  : — 'He  obtained  from  one  of 
those  universities  which  would  scarce  refuse  a  degree  to  an  apothe- 
cary's horse  a  diploma  for  that  of  doctor  of  physic'  He  became  a 
great  compiler  and  in  one  year  earned  ;i^i5oo.  In  the  end  he  turned 
quack-doctor.  He  was  knighted  by  the  King  of  Sweden  '  in  return 
for  a  present  to  that  monarch  of  his  Vegetable  System.'  He  at  least 
thrice  attacked  Garrick  (Murphy's  Garrick,  pp.  136,  189,  212),  who  re- 
plied with  three  epigrams,  of  which  the  last  is  well-known  : — 

'  For  Farces  and  Physic  his  equal  there  scarce  is ; 
His  Farces  are  Physic,  his  Physic  a  Farce  is.' 

Horace  Walpole  {Letters,  iii.  372),  writing  on  Jan.  3,  1761,  said: — 
'Would  you  believe,  what  I  know  is  fact,  that  Dr.  Hill  earned  fifteen 
guineas  a  week  by  working  for  wholesale  dealers?  He  was  at  once 
employed  on  six  voluminous  works  of  Botany,  Husbandry,  &c.,  pub- 
lished weekly.'     Churchill  in  the  Rosciad\h.Vi?,  writes  of  him  : — 

'  Who  could  so  nobly  grace  the  motley  list, 
Actor,  Inspector,  Doctor,  Botanist } 

Johnson 


44  I^^'  ^i-^^'  [^D- 1707, 

Johnson  answered,  that  he  was  an  ingenious  man,  but  had  no 
veracity ;  and  immediately  mentioned,  as  an  instance  of  it, 
an  assertion  of  that  writer,  that  he  had  seen  objects  magni- 
fied to  a  much  greater  degree  by  using  three  or  four  micro- 
scopes at  a  time,  than  by  using  one.  '  Now,  (added  John- 
son,) every  one  acquainted  with  microscopes  knows,  that  the 
more  of  them  he  looks  through,  the  less  the  object  will  ap- 
pear.' '  Why,  (replied  the  King,)  this  is  not  only  telling  an 
untruth,  but  telling  it  clumsily  ;  for,  if  that  be  the  case,  every 
one  who  can  look  through  a  microscope  will  be  able  to  de- 
tect him  '.' 

*  I  now,  (said  Johnson  to  his  friends,  when  relating  what 
had  passed,)  began  to  consider  that  I  was  depreciating  this 
man  in  the  estimation  of  his  Sovereign,  and  thought  it  was 
time  for  me  to  say  something  that  might  be  more  favour- 
able.' He  added,  therefore,  that  Dr.  Hill  was,  notwithstand- 
ing, a  very  curious  observer;  and  if  he  would  have  been  con- 
tented to  tell  the  world  no  more  than  he  knew,  he  might 
have  been  a  very  considerable  man,  and  needed  not  to  have 
recourse  to  such  mean  expedients  to  raise  his  reputation^. 

The  King  then  talked  of  literary  journals,  mentioned  par- 
ticularly the  Journal  dcs  Savans,  and  asked  Johnson  if  it  was 

Knows  any  one  so  well — sure  no  one  knows — 
At  once  to  play,  prescribe,  compound,  compose  ?' 

Churchill's  Poems,  i.  6.  In  the  Gent.  Mag.  xxii.  568,  it  is  stated  that 
he  had  acted  pantomime,  tragedy  and  comedy,  and  had  been  damned 
in  all. 

'  Mr.  Croker  quotes  Bishop  Elrington,  who  says, '  Dr.  Johnson  was 
unjust  to  Hill,  and  showed  that  he  did  not  understand  the  subject.' 
Croker's  Bosivell,  p.  186. 

^  D'Israeli  (Curiosities  of  Literature,  ed.  1834,  i.  201)  says  that '  Hill, 
once  when  he  fell  sick,  owned  to  a  friend  that  he  had  over-fatigued 
himself  with  writing  seven  works  at  once,  one  of  which  was  on  archi- 
tecture and  another  on  cookeiy.'  D'Israeli  adds  that  Hill  contracted 
to  translate  a  Dutch  work  on  insects  for  fifty  guineas.  As  he  was 
ignorant  of  the  language,  he  bargained  with  another  translator  for 
twenty-five  guineas.  This  man,  who  was  equally  ignorant,  rebar- 
gained  with  a  third,  who  perfectly  understood  his  original,  for  twelve 
guineas. 

well 


Aetat.  58.]  The  REVIEWS.  45 

well  done.  Johnson  said,  it  was  formerly  very  well  done,  and 
gav^e  some  account  of  the  persons  who  began  it,  and  carried 
it  on  for  some  years ;  enlarging,  at  the  same  time,  on  the 
nature  and  use  of  such  works.  The  King  asked  him  if  it  was 
well  done  now.  Johnson  answered,  he  had  no  reason  to  think 
that  it  was'.  The  King  then  asked  him  if  there  were  any 
other  literar}'  journals  published  in  this  kingdom,  except  the 
Mont/i/y  and  Critical Rcvicius^ ;  and  on  being  answered  there 
were  no  other,  his  Majesty  asked  which  of  them  was  the  best : 
Johnson  answered,  that  the  Montlily  Reviciv  was  done  with 
most  care,  the  Critical  upon  the  best  principles  ;  adding  that 
the  authours  of  the  Monthly  Reviciv  were  enemies  to  the 
Church  ^     This  the  King  said  he  was  sorry  to  hear. 

The  conversation  next  turned  on  the  Philosophical  Trans- 
actions, when  Johnson  observed,  that  they  had  now  a  better 
method  of  arranging  their  materials  than  formerly.  '  Aye, 
(said  the  King.)  they  are  obliged  to  Dr.  Johnson  for  that ;' 
for  his  Majesty  had  heard  and  remembered  the  circumstance, 
which  Johnson  himself  had  forgot*. 

*  Gibbon  {Misc.  Works,  v.  442),  writing  on  Dec.  20,  1763,  of  the  [oin-- 
nal  dcs  Savaiis,  says  : — '  I  can  hardly  express  how  much  I  am  delighted 
with  this  journal ;  its  characteristics  are  erudition,  precision,  and  taste. 
.  .  .  The  father  of  all  the  rest,  it  is  still  their  superior.  .  .  .  There  is 
nothing  to  be  wished  for  in  it  but  a  little  more  boldness  and  philoso- 
phy ;  but  it  is  published  under  the  Chancellor's  eye.' 

^  Goldsmith,  in  his  Present  State  of  Polite  Lear?iing  (ch.  xi.),  pub- 
lished in  1759,  says: — 'We  have  two  literary  reviews  in  London,  with 
critical  newspapers  and  magazines  without  number.  The  compilers 
of  these  resemble  the  commoners  of  Rome,  they  are  all  for  levelling 
property,  not  by  increasing  their  own,  but  by  diminishing  that  of  oth- 
ers. . . .  The  most  diminutive  son  of  fame  or  of  famine  has  his  we  and 
his  us,  his  Jirsttys  and  his  secondlys,  as  methodical  as  if  bound  in  cow- 
hide and  closed  with  clasps  of  brass.  Were  these  Monthly  Reviews 
and  Magazines  frothy,  pert,  or  absurd,  they  might  find  some  pardon, 
but  to  be  dull  and  dronish  is  an  encroachment  on  the  prerogative  of 
a  folio.' 

^  See /(?.r/,  April  10,  1766. 

''  Mr.  White,  the  Librarian  of  the  Royal  Society,  has,  at  my  request, 
kindly  examined  the  records  of  the  Royal  Society,  but  has  not  been 
able  to  discover  what  the  '  circumstance '  was.     Neither  is  any  light 

His 


46  Johnson  s  manner  before  the  King.    [a.d.  1767. 

His  Majesty  expressed  a  desire  to  have  the  literary  biogra- 
phy of  this  country  ably  executed,  and  proposed  to  Dr.  John- 
son to  undertake  it.  Johnson  signified  his  readiness  to  com- 
ply with  his  Majesty's  wishes. 

During  the  whole  of  this  interview,  Johnson  talked  to  his 
Majesty  W'ith  profound  respect,  but  still  in  his  firm  manly 
manner,  with  a  sonorous  voice,  and  never  in  that  subdued 
tone  which  is  commonly  used  at  the  levee  and  in  the  draw- 
ing-room'. After  the  King  withdrew,  Johnson  shewed  him- 
self highly  pleased  with  his  Majesty's  conversation,  and  gra- 
cious behaviour.  He  said  to  Mr.  Barnard,  '  Sir,  they  may 
talk  of  the  King  as  they  will ;  but  he  is  the  finest  gentleman 
I  have  ever  seen  ^'  And  he  afterwards  observed  to  Mr.  Lang- 
ton,  '  Sir,  his  manners  are  those  of  as  fine  a  gentleman  as  we 
may  suppose  Lewis  the  Fourteenth  or  Charles  the  Second.' 

At  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds's,  where  a  circle  of  Johnson's 
friends  was  collected  round  him  to  hear  his  account  of  this 

thrown  on  it  by  Johnson's  reviews  of  Birch's  History  of  the  Royal  So- 
ciety and  PJiilosophical  T?-ansactwfis,  vol.  xlix.  {ante,  1.  358),  which  I 
have  examined. 

'  '  Were  you  to  converse  with  a  King,  you  ought  to  be  as  easy  and 
unembarrassed  as  with  your  own  valet-de-chambre ;  but  yet  every 
look,  word,  and  action  should  imply  the  utmost  respect.  What  would 
be  proper  and  well-bred  with  others  much  your  superior,  would  be 
absurd  and  ill-bred  with  one  so  very  much  so.'  Chesterfield's  Letters, 
iii.  203. 

'  Imlac  thus  described  to  Rasselas  his  interview  with  the  Great 
Mogul:  —  'The  emperor  asked  me  many  questions  concerning  my 
country  and  my  travels  ;  and  though  I  cannot  now  recollect  any  thing 
that  he  uttered  above  the  power  of  a  common  man,  he  dismissed  me 
astonished  at  his  wisdom,  and  enamoured  of  his  goodness.'  Rasselas, 
chap.  ix.  Wraxall  {Memoirs,  c6\t.  of  1884,  i.  283)  says  that  Johnson 
was  no  judge  of  a  fine  gentleman.  'George  III,' he  adds,  'was  alto- 
gether destitute  of  these  ornamental  and  adventitious  endowments.' 
He  mentions  'the  oscillations  of  his  body,  the  precipitation  of  his 
questions,  none  of  which,  it  was  said,  would  wait  for  an  answer,  and 
the  hurry  of  his  articulation.'  Mr.  Wheatley,  in  a  note  on  this  pas- 
sage, quotes  the  opinion  of  '  Adams,  the  American  Envoy,  who  said, 
the  "  King  is,  I  really  think,  the  most  accomplished  courtier  in  his 
dominions."  ' 

memorable 


Aetat.  58.]  Dr.  Joseph  War  ton.  47 

memorable  conversation,  Dr.  Joseph  Warton,  in  his  frank 
and  hvely  manner',  was  very  active  in  pressing  him  to  men- 
tion the  particulars.  *  Come  now,  Sir,  this  is  an  interesting 
matter;  do  favour  us  with  it.'  Johnson,  with  great  good 
humour,  complied. 

He  told  them,  '  I  found  his  Majesty  wished  I  should  talk, 
and  I  made  it  my  business  to  talk.  I  find  it  does  a  man 
good  to  be  talked  to  by  his  Sovereign.  In  the  first  place, 
a  man  cannot  be  in  a  passion — .'  Here  some  question  in- 
terrupted him,  which  is  to  be  regretted,  as  he  certainly 
would  have  pointed  out  and  illustrated  many  circumstances 

'  '  Dr.  Warton  made  me  a  most  obsequious  bow.  .  .  .  He  is  what 
Dr.  Johnson  calls  a  rapturist,  and  I  saw  plainly  he  meant  to  pour  forth 
much  civility  into  my  ears.  He  is  a  very  communicative,  gay,  and 
pleasant  converser,  and  enlivened  the  whole  day  by  his  readiness  upon 
all  subjects.'  Mme.  D'Arblay's  Diary,  ii.  236.  It  is  very  likely  that 
he  is  'the  ingenious  writer'  mentioned  post,  1780,  in  Mr.  Langton's 
'  Collection,'  of  whom  Johnson  said, '  Sir,  he  is  an  enthusiast  by  rule.' 
Mr.  Windham  records  that  Johnson,  speaking  of  Warton's  admiration 
of  fine  passages,  said  : — '  His  taste  is  amazement '  (misprinted  amuse- 
meni).  Windham's  Diary,  p.  20.  In  her  Memoirs  of  Dr.  Burnty  (ii. 
82),  Mme.  D'Arblay  says  that  Johnson  '  at  times,  when  in  gay  spirits, 
would  take  off  Dr.  Warton  with  the  strongest  humour ;  describing, 
almost  convulsively,  the  ecstasy  with  which  he  would  seize  upon  the 
person  nearest  to  him,  to  hug  in  his  arms,  lest  his  grasp  should  be 
eluded,  while  he  displayed  some  picture  or  some  prospect.'  In  that 
humourous  piece,  Probationary  Odes  for  the  Lai{reateship  (p.  xliii.), 
Dr.  Joseph  is  made  to  hug  his  brother  in  his  arms,  when  he  sees  him 
descend  safely  from  the  balloon  in  which  he  had  composed  his  Ode. 
Thomas  Warton  is  described  in  the  same  piece  (p.  116)  as  "a  little, 
thick,  squat,  red-faced  man.'  There  was  for  some  time  a  coolness  be- 
tween Johnson  and  Dr.  Warton.  Warton,  writing  on  Jan.  22,  1766, 
says  • — '  I  only  dined  with  Johnson,  who  seemed  cold  and  indifferent, 
and  scarce  said  anything  to  me ;  perhaps  he  has  heard  what  I  said  of 
his  Shakespeare,  or  rather  was  offended  at  what  I  wrote  to  him — as 
he  pleases.'  Wooll's  Warton,  p.  312.  Wooll  says  that  a  dispute  took 
place  between  the  two  men  at  Reynolds's  house.  '  One  of  the  com- 
pany overheard  the  following  conclusion  of  the  dispute.  Johnson. 
"  Sir,  I  am  not  used  to  be  contradicted."  Warton.  "  Better  for  your- 
self and  friends,  Sir,  if  you  were;  our  admiration  could  not  be  in- 
creased, but  our  love  might."  '     Jb.  p.  98. 

of 


48  Goldsmit/is  affected  mdifference.       [a.d.  1767. 

of  advantage,  from  being  in  a  situation,  where  the  powers 
of  the  mind  are  at  once  excited  to  vigorous  exertion,  and 
tempered  by  reverential  awe. 

During  all  the  time  in  which  Dr.  Johnson  was  employed 
in  relating  to  the  circle  at  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds's  the  particu- 
lars of  what  passed  between  the  King  and  him,  Dr.  Gold- 
smith remained  unmoved  upon  a  sopha  at  some  distance,  af- 
fecting not  to  join  in  the  least  in  the  eager  curiosity  of  the 
company.  He  assigned  as  a  reason  for  his  gloom  and  seeming 
inattention,  that  he  apprehended  Johnson  had  relinquished 
his  purpose  of  furnishing  him  with  a  Prologue  to  his  play', 
wnth  the  hopes  of  which  he  had  been  flattered  ;  but  it  was 
strongly  suspected  that  he  was  fretting  with  chagrin  and 
envy  at  the  singular  honour  Dr.  Johnson  had  lately  enjoyed. 
At  length,  the  frankness  and  simplicity  of  his  natural  char- 
acter prevailed.  He  sprung  from  the  sopha,  advanced  to 
Johnson,  and  in  a  kind  of  flutter,  from  imagining  himself  in 
the  situation  which  he  had  just  been  hearing  described,  ex- 
claimed, '  Well,  you  acquitted  yourself  in  this  conversation 
better  than  I  should  have  done ;  for  I  should  have  bowed 
and  stammered  through  the  whole  of  it*.' 

I  received  no  letter  from  Johnson  this  year;  nor  have  I 

'    The  Good-Natured  Man,  post,  p.  45. 

^  '  It  has  been  said  that  the  King  only  sought  one  interview  with 
Dr.  Johnson.  There  was  nothing  to  complain  of ;  it  was  a  compli- 
ment paid  by  rank  to  letters,  and  once  was  enough.  The  King  was 
more  afraid  of  this  interview  than  Dr.  Johnson  was;  and  went  to  it 
as  a  schoolboy  to  his  task.  But  he  did  not  want  to  have  this  trial 
repeated  every  day,  nor  was  it  necessary.  The  very  jealousy  of  his 
self-love  marked  his  respect;  and  if  he  had  thought  less  of  Dr.  John- 
son, he  would  have  been  more  willing  to  risk  the  encounter.'  Haz- 
litt's  Conversations  of  Northcote,  p.  45.  It  should  seem  that  Johnson 
had  a  second  interview  with  the  King  thirteen  years  later.  In  1780, 
Hannah  More  records  {Memoirs,  \.  174): — 'Johnson  told  me  he  had 
been  with  the  King  that  morning,  who  enjoined  him  to  add  Spenser 
to  his  Lives  of  the  Poets!  It  is  strange  that,  so  far  as  I  know,  this  in- 
terview is  not  mentioned  by  any  one  else.  It  is  perhaps  alluded  to, 
post,  Dec.  1784,  when  Mr.  Nichols  told  Johnson  that  he  wished  'he 
would  gratify  his  sovereign  by  a  Life  of  Spenser.' 

discovered 


Aetat.  58.]       Death  of  Catharine  Chambers.  49 

discovered  any  of  the  correspondence '  he  had,  except  the 
two  letters  to  Mr.  Drummond,  which  have  been  inserted,  for 
the  sake  of  connection  with  that  to  the  same  gentleman  in 
1766.  His  diary  affords  no  light  as  to  his  employment  at 
this  time.  He  passed  three  months  at  Lichfield*;  and  I 
cannot  omit  an  affecting  and  solemn  scene  there,  as  related 
by  himself' : 

'  Sunday,  Oct.  18,  1767.  Yesterday,  Oct.  17,  at  about  ten  in  the 
morning,  I  took  my  leave  for  ever  of  my  dear  old  friend,  Catharine 
Chambers,  who  came  to  live  with  my  mother  about  1724,  and  has 
been  but  little  parted  from  us  since.  She  buried  my  father,  my 
brother,  and  my  mother.     She  is  now  fifty-eight  years  old. 

'  I  desired  all  to  withdraw,  then  told  her  that  we  were  to  part 
for  ever  ;  that  as  Christians,  we  should  part  with  prayer ;  and  that 
I  would,  if  she  was  willing,  say  a  short  prayer  beside  her.  She 
expressed  great  desire  to  hear  me ;  and  held  up  her  poor  hands, 
as  she  lay  in  bed,  with  great  fervour,  while  I  prayed,  kneeling  by 
her,  nearly  in  the  following  words  : 

'  Almighty  and  most  merciful  Father,  whose  loving  kindness  is 
over  all  thy  works,  behold,  visit,  and  relieve  this  thy  servant,  who 
is  grieved  with  sickness.  Grant  that  the  sense  of  her  weakness 
may  add  strength  to  her  faith,  and  seriousness  to  her  repentance. 
And  grant  that  by  the  help  of  thy  Holy  Spirit,  after  the  pains  and 
labours  of  this  short  life,  we  may  all  obtain  everlasting  happiness, 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord ;  for  whose  sake  hear  our  prayers. 
Amen.     Our  Father,  &c. 

'  I  then  kissed  her.  She  told  me,  that  to  part  was  the  greatest 
pain  that  she  had  ever  felt,  and  that  she  hoped  we  should  meet 
again  in  a  better  place.     I  expressed,  with  swelled  eyes,  and  great 

'  It  is  proper  here  to  mention,  that  when  I  speak  of  his  correspond- 
ence, I  consider  it  independent  of  the  voluminous  collection  of  letters 
which,  in  the  course  of  many  years,  he  wrote  to  Mrs.  Thrale,  which 
forms  a  separate  part  of  his  works ;  and  as  a  proof  of  the  high  esti- 
mation set  on  any  thing  which  came  from  his  pen,  was  sold  by  that 
lady  for  the  sum  of  five  hundred  pounds.     BosWELL. 

^  He  was  away  from  London  '  near  six  months.'     See  ante,  ii.  34. 

^  On  Aug.  17  he  recorded  : — '  I  have  communicated  with  Kitty,  and 
kissed  her.  I  was  for  some  time  distracted,  but  at  last  more  composed. 
I  commended  my  friends,  and  Kitty,  Lucy,  and  I  were  much  affected. 
Kitty  is,  I  think,  going  to  heaven.'     /V.  and  Med.  p.  75. 

n  —4  emotion 


50  Lexiphanes.  [a.d.  1767. 

emotion  of  tenderness,  the  same  hopes.     We  kissed,  and  parted. 
I  humbly  hope  to  meet  again,  and  to  part  no  more'.' 

By  those  who  have  been  taught  to  look  upon  Johnson  as 
a  man  of  a  harsh  and  stern  character,  let  this  tender  and  af- 
fectionate scene  be  candidly  read  ;  and  let  them  then  judge 
whether  more  warmth  of  heart,  and  grateful  kindness,  is  often 
found  in  human  nature. 

We  have  the  following  notice  in  his  devotional  record : 

'August  2,  1767.  I  have  been  disturbed  and  unsettled  for  a 
long  time,  and  have  been  without  resolution  to  apply  to  study  or 
to  business,  being  hindered  by  sudden  snatches ^' 

He,  however,  furnished  Mr.  Adams  with  a  Dedication*  to 
the  King  of  that  ingenious  gentleman's  Treatise  on  the  Globes, 
conceived  and  expressed  in  such  a  manner  as  could  not  fail 
to  be  very  grateful  to  a  Monarch,  distinguished  for  his  love 
of  the  sciences. 

This  year  was  published  a  ridicule  of  his  style,  under  the 
title  of  Lexiphanes.  Sir  John  Hawkins  ascribes  it  to  Dr. 
Kenrick" ;  but  its  authour  was  one  Campbell,  a  Scotch  purser 
in  the  navy.  The  ridicule  consisted  in  applying  Johnson's 
'words  of  large  meaning^ '  to  insignificant  matters,  as  if  one 
should  put  the  armour  of  Goliath  upon  a  dwarf.  The  con- 
trast might  be  laughable  ;  but  the  dignity  of  the  armour 
must  remain  the  same  in  all  considerate  minds.  This  'ma- 
licious drollery,  therefore,  it  may  easily  be  supposed,  could 
do  no  harm  to  its  illustrious  object  \ 

'  Pr.  and  Med.  pp.  Tj  and  78.     Boswell. 

^  Pr.  and  Med.  p.  73.  Boswell.  On  Aug.  17  he  recorded  : — '  By 
abstinence  from  wine  and  suppers  I  obtained  sudden  and  great  relief, 
and  had  freedom  of  mind  restored  to  me,  which  I  have  wanted  for  all 
this  year,  without  being  able  to  find  any  means  of  obtaining  it.'     lb. 

P-74- 

^  Hawkins,  in  his  second  edition  (p.  347),  assigns  it  to  Campbell, 
'  who,'  he  says, '  as  well  for  the  malignancy  of  his  heart  as  his  terrific 
countenance,  was  called  horrible  Campbell.' 

*  See  ante,  i.  253. 

*  The  book  is  as  dull  as  it  is  indecent.  The  '  drollery  '  is  of  the  fol- 
lowing kind.     Johnson  is  represented  as  saying : — '  Without  dubiety 

'To 


Aetat.  59.]    Prologue  to  The  Good-Na  tured  Man.    5 1 

'To  Bennet  Langton,  Esq.,  at  Mr.  Rothwell's,  perfumer,  in 
New  Bond-street,  London. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'That  you  have  been  all  summer  in  London,  is  one  more  rea- 
son for  which  I  regret  my  long  stay  in  the  country.  I  hope  that 
you  will  not  leave  the  town  before  my  return.  We  have  here  only 
the  chance  of  vacancies  in  the  passing  carriages,  and  I  have  be- 
spoken one  that  may,  if  it  happens,  bring  me  to  town  on  the  four- 
teenth of  this  month ;  but  this  is  not  certain. 

'  It  will  be  a  favour  if  you  communicate  this  to  Mrs.  Williams  :  I 
long  to  see  all  my  friends. 

'  I  am,  dear  Sir,  your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'Lichfield,  Oct.  lo,  1767.' 

1768  :  ^TAT.  59. — It  appears  from  his  notes  of  the  state  of 
his  mind ',  that  he  suffered  great  perturbation  and  distraction 
in  1768.  Nothing  of  his  writing  was  given  to  the  publick  this 
year,  except  the  Prologue'""  to  his  friend  Goldsmith's  comedy 
of  Tlic  Good-Natiircd  Man '.  The  first  lines  of  this  Prologue 
are  strongly  characteristical  of  the  dismal  gloom  of  his  mind  ; 
which  in  his  case,  as  in  the  case  of  all  who  arc  distressed  with 
the  same  malady  of  imagination,  transfers  to  others  its  own 
feelings.  Who  could  suppose  it  was  to  introduce  a  comedy, 
when  Mr.  Bensley  solemnly  began, 

'  Press'd  with'  the  load  of  life,  the  weary  mind 
Surveys  the  general  toil  of  human  kind.' 

you  misapprehend  this  dazzling  scintillation  of  conceit  in  totality,  and 
had  you  had  that  constant  recurrence  to  my  oraculous  dictionary 
which  was  incumbent  upon  you  from  the  vehemence  of  my  monitory 
injunctions,'  &c. — p.  2. 

'  Fr.  and  Med.  p.  81.  Bosvvell.  '  This  day,'  he  wrote  on  his  birth- 
day, '  has  been  passed  in  great  perturbation  ;  I  was  distracted  at  church 
in  an  uncommon  degree,  and  my  distress  has  had  very  little  intermis- 
sion. .  .  .  This  day  it  came  into  my  mind  to  write  the  history  of  my 
melancholy.  On  this  I  purpose  to  deliberate;  I  know  not  whether 
it  may  not  too  much  disturb  me.'     Sec  post,  April  8,  1780. 

'  It  is  strange  that  Boswcll  nowhere  quotes  the  lines  in  The  Good- 
Natured  Man,  m  •which  Paoli  is  mentioned.  'That's  from  Paoli  of 
Corsica,'  said  Lofty.     Act  v.  sc.  i. 

'  In  the  original, '  Prcs.sed  l>y.'    Boswcll,  in  thus  changing  the  prepo- 

But 


52  Boswell's  book  on  Corsica.  [a.d.  1768. 

But  this  dark  ground  might  make  Goldsmith's  humour  shine 
the  more. 

In  the  spring  of  this  year,  having  pubHshed  my  Account 
of  Corsica,  with  the  Journal  of  a  Tour  to  that  Island^,  I  re- 
turned to  London'',  very  desirous  to  see  Dr.  Johnson,  and 
hear  him  upon  the  subject.  I  found  he  was  at  Oxford,  with 
his  friend  Mr.  Chambers  ^  who  was  now  Vinerian  Professor, 

sition,  forgot  what  Johnson  says  in  his  Ptan  of  an  English  Dictionary 
(  Works,  V.  12) : — '  We  say,  according  to  the  present  modes  of  speech, 
The  soldier  died  of  his  wounds,  and  the  sailor  perished  with  hunger ; 
and  every  man  acquainted  with  our  language  would  be  offended  with 
a  change  of  these  particles,  which  yet  seem  originally  assigned  by 
chance.' 

'  Boswell,  writing  to  Temple  on  March  24,  says : — '  My  book  has 
amazing  celebrity  ;  Lord  Lyttelton,  Mr.  Walpole,  Mrs.  Macaulay,  and 
Mr.  Garrick  have  all  written  me  noble  letters  about  it.  There  are  two 
Dutch  translations  going  forward.'  Letters  of  Boswell,  p.  145.  It  met 
with  a  rapid  sale.  A  third  edition  was  called  for  within  a  year.  Dilly, 
the  publisher,  must  have  done  very  well  by  it,  as  he  purchased  the 
copyright  for  one  hundred  guineas.  /^.  p.  103.  'Pray  read  the  new 
account  of  Corsica,'  wrote  Horace  Walpole  to  Gray  on  Feb.  18,  1768 
{Letters,  v.  85).  'The  author  is  a  strange  being,  and  has  a  rage  of 
knowing  everybody  that  ever  was  talked  of.  He  forced  himself  upon 
me  at  Paris  in  spite  of  my  teeth  and  my  doors.'  To  this  Gray  re- 
plied :—' Mr.  Boswell's  book  has  pleased  and  moved  me  strangely; 
all,  I  mean,  that  relates  to  Paoli.  He  is  a  man  born  two  thousand 
years  after  his  time  !  The  pamphlet  proves,  what  I  have  always  main- 
tained, that  any  fool  may  write  a  most  valuable  book  by  chance,  if  he 
will  only  tell  us  what  he  heard  and  saw  with  veracity.'  In  the  Let- 
ters of  Boswell  (p.  122)  there  is  the  following  under  date  of  Nov.  9, 
1767  : — '  I  am  always  for  fixing  some  period  for  my  perfection,  as  far 
as  possible.  Let  it  be  when  my  account  of  Corsica  is  published ;  I 
shall  then  have  a  character  which  I  must  support.'  In  April  16  of 
the  following  year,  a  few  weeks  after  the  book  had  come  out,  he 
writes : — '  To  confess  to  you  at  once,  Temple,  I  have  since  my  last 
coming  to  town  been  as  wild  as  ever '  (p.  146). 

^  Boswell  used  to  put  notices  of  his  movements  in  the  newspapers, 
such  as — 'James  Boswell,  Esq.,  is  expected  in  town.'  Public  Adver- 
tiser, Feb.  28,  1768.  'Yesterday  James  Boswell,  Esq.,  arrived  from 
Scotland  at  his  lodgings  in  Half-Moon  Street,  Piccadilly.'  Lb.  March 
24,  1768.     Prior's  Goldsmith,  i.  449. 

^  Johnson  was  very  ill  during  this  visit.     Mrs.  Thrale  had  at  the 

and 


Aetat.  59.]  The  duty  of  an  advocate.  53 

and  lived  in  New  Inn  Hall.  Having  had  no  letter  from  him 
since  that  in  which  he  criticised  the  Latinity  of  my  Thesis, 
and  having  been  told  by  somebody  that  he  was  offended  at 
my  having  put  into  my  Book  an  extract  of  his  letter  to  me 
at  Paris',  I  was  impatient  to  be  with  him,  and  therefore  fol- 
lowed him  to  Oxford,  where  I  was  entertained  by  Mr.  Cham- 
bers, with  a  civility  which  I  shall  ever  gratefully  remember. 
I  found  that  Dr.  Johnson  had  sent  a  letter  to  me  to  Scotland, 
and  that  I  had  nothing  to  complain  of  but  his  being  more 
indifferent  to  my  anxiety  than  I  wished  him  to  be.  Instead 
of  giving,  with  the  circumstances  of  time  and  place,  such 
fragments  of  his  conversation  as  I  preserved  during  this  visit 
to  Oxford,  I  shall  throw  them  together  in  continuation  \ 

I  asked  him  whether,  as  a  moralist,  he  did  not  think  that 
the  practice  of  the  law,  in  some  degree,  hurt  the  nice  feeling  of 
honesty.  JOHNSON.  '  Why  no,  Sir,  if  you  act  properly.  You 
are  not  to  deceive  your  clients  with  false  representations  of 
your  opinion  :  you  are  not  to  tell  lies  to  a  judge.'  BOSWELL. 
'  But  what  do  you  think  of  supporting  a  cause  which  you 
know  to  be  bad  ?'  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  you  do  not  know  it  to  be 
good  or  bad  till  the  Judge  determines  it.  I  have  said  that 
you  are  to  state  facts  fairly ;  so  that  your  thinking,  or  what 
you  call  knowing,  a  cause  to  be  bad,  must  be  from  reasoning, 

same  time  given  birth  to  a  daughter,  and  had  been  nursed  by  her 
mother.  His  thoughts,  therefore,  were  turned  on  illness.  Writing  to 
Mrs.  Thrale,  he  says  : — '  To  roll  the  weak  eye  of  helpless  anguish,  and 
see  nothing  on  any  side  but  cold  indifTerence,  will,  I  hope,  happen  to 
none  whom  I  love  or  value ;  it  may  tend  to  withdraw  the  mind  from 
life,  but  has  no  tendency  to  kindle  those  affections  which  fit  us  for 
a  purer  and  a  nobler  state.  .  .  .  These  reflections  do  not  grow  out  of 
any  discontent  at  C's  [Chambers's]  behaviour;  he  has  been  neither 
negligent  nor  troublesome ;  nor  do  I  love  him  less  for  having  been 
ill  in  his  house.  This  is  no  small  degree  of  praise.'  Piozzi  Letters, 
i.  13. 

'  See  atite,  ii.  3,  note. 

'  The  editor  of  the  Letters  of  Boswell  justly  says  (p.  149)  : — 'The 
detail  in  the  Life  of  fohnson  is  rather  scanty  about  this  period  ;  dissi- 
pation, the  History  of  Corsica,  wife-hunting,  .  .  .  interfered  perhaps  at 
this  time  with  Boswell's  pursuit  of  Dr.  Johnson.' 

must 


54  Modern  plays.  [a.d.  1768. 

must  be  from  your  supposing  your  arguments  to  be  weak 
and  inconclusive.  But,  Sir,  that  is  not  enough.  An  argu- 
ment which  docs  not  convince  yourself,  may  convince  the 
Judge  to  whom  you  urge  it :  and  if  it  does  convince  him, 
why,  then,  Sir,  you  are  wrong,  and  he  is  right.  It  is  his 
business  to  judge ;  and  you  are  not  to  be  confident  in  your 
own  opinion  that  a  cause  is  bad,  but  to  say  all  you  can 
for  your  client,  and  then  hear  the  Judge's  opinion.'  Bos- 
WELL.  '  But,  Sir,  does  not  affecting  a  warmth  when  you  have 
no  warmth,  and  appearing  to  be  clearly  of  one  opinion  when 
you  are  in  reality  of  another  opinion,  does  not  such  dissimu- 
lation impair  one's  honesty?  Is  there  not  some  danger  that 
a  lawyer  may  put  on  the  same  mask  in  common  life,  in  the 
intercourse  with  his  friends?'  JOHNSON.  '  Why  no,  Sir.  Ev- 
erybody knows  you  are  paid  for  affecting  warmth  for  your 
client ;  and  it  is,  therefore,  properly  no  dissimulation  :  the 
moment  you  come  from  the  bar  you  resume  your  usual  be- 
haviour. Sir,  a  man  will  no  more  carry  the  artifice  of  the 
bar  into  the  common  intercourse  of  society,  than  a  man  who 
is  paid  for  tumbling  upon  his  hands  will  continue  to  tumble 
upon  his  hands  when  he  should  walk  on  his  feet '.' 

Talking  of  some  of  the  modern  plays,  he  said  False  Deli- 
cacy was  totally  void  of  character  ^     He  praised  Goldsmith's 

'  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  15, 1773,  for  a  discussion  of  the  same 
question.  Lord  Eldon  has  recorded  {Life,  i.  106),  that  when  he  first 
went  the  Northern  Circuit  (about  1 776-1 780),  he  asked  Jack  Lee  {post, 
March  20,  1778),  who  was  not  scrupulous  in  his  advocacy,  whether  his 
method  could  be  justified.  '  Oh,  yes,'  he  said,  '  undoubtedly.  Dr. 
Johnson  had  said  that  counsel  were  at  liberty  to  state,  as  the  parties 
themselves  would  state,  what  it  was  most  for  their  interest  to  state.' 
After  some  interval,  and  when  he  had  had  his  evening  bowl  of  milk 
punch  and  two  or  three  pipes  of  tobacco,  he  suddenly  said,  'Come. 
Master  Scott,  let  us  go  to  bed.  I  have  been  thinking  upon  the  ques- 
tions that  you  asked  me,  and  I  am  not  quite  so  sure  that  the  conduct 
you  represented  will  bring  a  man  peace  at  the  last.'  Lord  Eldon, 
after  stating  pretty  nearly  what  Johnson  had  said,  continues : — '  But 
it  may  be  questioned  whether  even  this  can  be  supported.' 

=*  Garrick  brought  out  Hugh  Kelly's  False  Delicacy  at  Drury  Lane 
six  days  before  Goldsmith's  Good-Naticred  Man  was  brought  out  at 

Good-Naturcd 


Aetat.  59.]  Modem  play s.  55 

Good-Naiurcd  Man  ;  said,  it  was  the  best  comedy  that  had 
appeared  since  Tlic  Provoked  Husband',  and  that  there  had 
not  been  of  late  any  such  character  exhibited  on  the  stage 
as  that  of  Croaker.  I  observed  it  was  the  Suspirius  of  his 
Rambler.  He  said,  Goldsmith  had  owned  he  had  borrowed 
it  from  thence".  '  Sir,  (continued  he,)  there  is  all  the  differ- 
ence in  the  world  between  characters  of  nature  and  char- 
acters of  manners ;  and  there  is  the  difference  between  the 
characters  of  Fielding  and  those  of  Richardson.  Characters 
of  manners  are  very  entertaining ;  but  they  are  to  be  under- 
stood, by  a  more  superficial  observer,  than  characters  of  nat- 
ure, where  a  man  must  dive  into  the  recesses  of  the  human 
heart.' 

It  always  appeared  to  me  that  he  estimated  the  compo- 
sitions of  Richardson  too  highly,  and  that  he  had  an  unrea- 
sonable prejudice  against  Fielding  ^  In  comparing  those  two 
writers,  he  used  this  expression :  '  that  there  was  as  great  a 
difference  between  them  as  between  a  man  who  knew  how  a 
watch  was  made,  and  a  man  who  could  tell  the  hour  by  look- 
ing on  the  dial-plate\'    This  was  a  short  and  figurative  state  of 

Covent  Garden.  '  It  was  the  town  talk,'  says  Mr.  Forster  {Life  of 
Goldsmith,  ii.  93),  '  some  weeks  before  either  performance  took  place, 
that  the  two  comedies  were  to  be  pitted  against  each  other.'  False 
Delicacy  had  a  great  success.  Ten  thousand  copies  of  it  were  sold 
before  the  season  closed.  {lb.  p.  96.)  '  Garrick's  prologue  to  False 
Delicacy,'  writes  Murphy  {Life  of  Garrick,  p.  287), '  promised  a  moral 
and  sentimental  comedy,  and  with  an  air  of  pleasantry  called  it  a  ser- 
mon in  five  acts.  The  critics  considered  it  in  the  same  light,  but  the 
general  voice  was  in  favour  of  the  play  during  a  run  of  near  twenty 
nights.  Foote,  at  last,  by  a  little  piece  called  Piety  in  Pattens,  brought 
that  species  of  composition  into  disrepute.'  It  is  recorded  in  John- 
son's Works  (1787),  xi.  201,  that  when  some  one  asked  Johnson  whether 
they  should  introduce  Hugh  Kelly  to  him, '  No,  Sir,'  says  he, '  I  never 
desire  to  converse  with  a  man  who  has  written  more  than  he  has  read.' 
See /(J'.y/',  beginning  of  1777. 

'  The  Provoked  Husband,  or  A  Journey  to  London,  by  Vanbrugh  and 
Colley  Gibber      It  was  brought  out  in  1727-8.     See /6»j-/,  June  3,  1784. 

*  See  atite,  i.  247. 

'  See  ^^^rJi-/,  April  6,  1772,  and  April  12,  1776. 

*  Richardson,  writing  on  Dec.  7,  1756,  to  Miss  Fielding,  about  her 

his 


56  Richardson  and  Fielding.  [a.d.  1768. 

his  distinction  between  drawing  characters  of  nature  and  char- 
acters only  of  manners.  But  I  cannot  help  being  of  opinion, 
that  the  neat  watches  of  Fielding  are  as  well  constructed  as 
the  large  clocks  of  Richardson,  and  that  his  dial-plates  are 
brighter.  Fielding's  characters,  though  they  do  not  expand 
themselves  so  widely  in  dissertation,  are  as  just  pictures  of 
human  nature,  and  I  will  venture  to  say,  have  more  striking 
features,  and  nicer  touches  of  the  pencil ;  and  though  John- 
son used  to  quote  with  approbation  a  saying  of  Richardson's, 
'  that  the  virtues  of  Fielding's  heroes  were  the  vices  of  a  truly 
good  man,'  I  will  venture  to  add,  that  the  moral  tendency  of 
Fielding's  writings,  though  it  does  not  encourage  a  strained 
and  rarely  possible  virtue,  is  ever  favourable  to  honour  and 
honesty,  and  cherishes  the  benevolent  and  generous  afTec- 
tions.  He  who  is  as  good  as  Fielding  would  make  him,  is 
an  amiable  member  of  society,  and  may  be  led  on  by  more 
regulated  instructors,  to  a  higher  state  of  ethical  perfec- 
tion. 

Johnson  proceeded  :  '  Even  Sir  Francis  Wronghead  is  a 
character  of  manners,  though  drawn  with  great  humour.' 
He  then  repeated,  very  happily,  all  Sir  Francis's  credulous 
account  to  Manly  of  his  being  with  '  the  great  man,'  and 
securing  a  place'.  I  asked  him,  if  TJie  Suspicious  HiLsband'' 
did   not   furnish   a  well  -  drawn   character,  that   of   Ranger. 

Familiar  Letters,  says :  —  'What  a  knowledge  of  the  human  heart! 
Well  might  a  critical  judge  of  writing  say,  as  he  did  to  me,  that  your 
late  brother's  knowledge  of  it  was  not  (fine  writer  as  he  was)  com- 
parable to  yours.  His  was  but  as  the  knowledge  of  the  outside  of  a 
clock-work  machine,  while  yours  was  that  of  all  the  finer  springs  and 
movements  of  the  inside.'  Richardson  Carres,  ii.  104.  Mrs.  Calder- 
wood,  writing  of  her  visit  to  the  Low  Countries  in  1756,  says: — 'AH 
Richison's  [Richardson's]  books  are  translated,  and  much  admired 
abroad ;  but  for  Fielding's,  the  foreigners  have  no  notion  of  them, 
and  do  not  understand  them,  as  the  manners  are  so  entirely  English.* 
Letters,  &^c.,  of  Mrs.  Calderivood,  p.  208. 

'  In  T/ie  Provoked  Husband,  a.cX.W.sc.\. 

'  By  Dr.  Hoadley,  brought  out  in  1747.  'This  was  the  first  good 
comedy  from  the  time  of  The  Provoked  Husband  in  1727.'  Murphy's 
Gar  rick,  p.  78. 

Johnson. 


Aetat.  59.]  The  Douglas  Cause.  57 

Johnson.  *  No,  Sir;   Ranger   is  just   a   rake,  a  mere  rake', 
and  a  lively  young  fellow,  but  no  character.'' 

The  great  Douglas  Cause''  was  at  this  time  a  very  general 
subject  of  discussion.  I  found  he  had  not  studied  it  with 
much  attention,  but  had  only  heard  parts  of  it  occasionally. 
He,  however,  talked  of  it,  and  said,  '  I  am  of  opinion  that 
positive  proof  of  fraud  should  not  be  required  of  the  plain- 
tiff, but  that  the  Judges  should  decide  according  as  probabili- 
ty shall  appear  to  preponderate,  granting  to  the  defendant 
the  presumption  of  filiation  to  be  strong  in  his  favour.  And 
I  think  too,  that  a  good  deal  of  weight  should  be  allowed 
to  the  dying  declarations,  because  they  were  spontaneous. 
There  is  a  great  difference  between  what  is  said  without  our 
being  urged  to  it,  and  what  is  said  from  a  kind  of  compulsion. 
If  I  praise  a  man's  book  without  being  asked  my  opinion  of 
it,  that  is  honest  praise,  to  which  one  may  trust.  But  if  an 
authour  asks  me  if  I  like  his  book,  and  I  give  him  something 
like  praise,  it  must  not  be  taken  as  my  real  opinion.' 

'  Madame  Riccoboni,  writing  to  Garrick  from  Paris  on  Sept.  7,  1768, 
says  : — '  On  ne  supporterait  point  ici  I'indecence  de  Ranger.  Les  tres- 
indecens  Franc^ais  deviennent  delicats  sur  leur  theatre,  a  mesure  qu'ils 
le  sent  moins  dans  leur  conduite.'     Garrick' s  Corrcs.  ii.  548. 

'•^  '  The  question  in  dispute  was  as  to  the  heirship  of  Mr.  Archibald 
Douglas.  If  he  were  really  the  son  of  Lady  Jane  Douglas,  he  would 
inherit  large  family  estates ;  but  if  he  were  supposititious,  then  they 
would  descend  to  the  Duke  of  Hamilton.  The  Judges  of  the  Court 
of  Session  had  been  divided  in  opinion,  eight  against  seven,  the  Lord 
President  Dundas  giving  the  casting  vote  in  favour  of  the  Duke  of 
Hamilton  ;  and  in  consequence  of  it  he  and  several  other  of  the  judges 
had,  on  the  reversal  by  the  Lords,  their  houses  attacked  by  a  mob.  It 
is  said,  but  not  upon  conclusive  authority,  that  Boswell  himself  headed 
the  mob  which  broke  his  own  father's  windows.'  Letters  of  Boszuell, 
p.  86.  See  post,  April  27,  1773,  and  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Oct.  24-26,  1773. 
Mr.  J.  H.  Burton,  in  his  Life  of  Himie  (ii.  150),  says  : — '  Men  about  to 
meet  each  other  in  company  used  to  lay  an  injunction  on  themselves 
not  to  open  their  lips  on  the  subject,  so  fruitful  was  it  in  debates  and 
brawls.'  Boswell,  according  to  the  Bodleian  catalogue,  was  the  au- 
thour of  Dorando,  A  Spanish  Tale,  1767.  In  this  tale  the  Douglas 
cause  is  narrated  under  the  thinnest  disguise.  It  is  reviewed  in  the 
Gent.  Mag.  for  1767,  p.  361 . 

'  I  have 


58  St.  Kilda,  [A.D.  1768. 

'  I  have  not  been  troubled  for  a  long  time  with  authours 
desiring  my  opinion  of  their  works  '.  I  used  once  to  be  sadly 
plagued  with  a  man  who  wrote  verses,  but  who  literally  had 
no  other  notion  of  a  verse,  but  that  it  consisted  of  ten  sylla- 
bles. Lay  your  knife  and  your  fork,  across  your  plate,  was  to 
him  a  verse : 

Lay  your  knife  and  your  fork,  across  your  plate. 

As  he  wrote  a  great  number  of  verses,  he  sometimes  by  chance 
made  good  ones,  though  he  did  not  know  it.' 

He  renewed  his  promise  of  coming  to  Scotland,  and  going 
with  me  to  the  Hebrides,  but  said  he  would  now  content  him- 
self with  seeing  one  or  two  of  the  most  curious  of  them.  He 
said, '  Macaulay  ^  who  writes  the  account  of  St.  Kilda,  set  out 
with  a  prejudice  against  prejudices,  and  wanted  to  be  a  smart 
modern  thinker ;  and  yet  he  affirms  for  a  truth,  that  when  a 
ship  arrives  there,  all  the  inhabitants  are  seized  with  a  cold^' 

Dr.  John  Campbell*,  the  celebrated  writer,  took  a  great 
deal  of  pains  to  ascertain  this  fact,  and  attempted  to  account 
for  it  on  physical  principles,  from  the  effect  of  effluvia  from 
human  bodies.  Johnson,  at  another  time  ^  praised  Macaulay 
for  his  '  uiagnaniniity,'  in  asserting  this  wonderful  story,  be- 
cause it  was  well  attested.     A  Lady  of  Norfolk,  by  a  letter 

*  See /d?^/',  under  April  19,  1772,  March  15,  1779,  and  June  2,  1781. 

^  Revd.  Kenneth  Macaulay.  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  27,  1773. 
He  was  the  great-uncle  of  Lord  Macaulay. 

'  Marthi,  in  his  St.  Kilda  (p.  38),  had  stated  that  the  people  of  St. 
Kilda '  are  seldom  troubled  with  a  cough,  except  at  the  Stewart's  land- 
ing. I  told  them  plainly,'  he  continues, '  that  I  thought  all  this  no- 
tion of  infection  was  but  a  mere  fancy,  at  which  they  seemed  offended, 
saying,  that  never  any  before  the  minister  and  myself  was  heard  to 
doubt  of  the  truth  of  it,  which  is  plainly  demonstrated  upon  the  land- 
ing of  every  boat.'  The  usual  '  infected  cough  '  came,  he  says,  upon 
his  visit.  Macaulay  {History  of  St.  Kilda,  p.  204)  says  that  he  had 
gone  to  the  island  a  disbeliever,  but  that  by  eight  days  after  his  arriv- 
al all  the  inhabitants  were  infected  with  this  disease.  See  also  post, 
March  21,  1772,  and  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Oct.  2,  1773. 

*  See  rt^/i',  July  i,  1763. 

^  See.  post,  March  21, 1772. 

to 


Aetat.  59.]  The  University  of  Oxford.  59 

to  my  friend  Dr.  Burney,  has  favoured  me  with  the  following 
solution  :  '  Now  for  the  explication  of  this  seeming  myster)% 
which  is  so  very  obvious  as,  for  that  reason,  to  have  escaped 
the  penetration  of  Dr.  Johnson  and  his  friend,  as  well  as  that 
of  the  authour.  Reading  the  book  with  my  ingenious  friend, 
the  late  Reverend  Mr.  Christian,  of  Docking — after  ruminat- 
ing a  little,  "  The  cause,  (says  he,)  is  a  natural  one.  The  situ- 
ation of  St.  Kilda  renders  a  North-East  Wind  indispensably 
necessary  before  a  stranger  can  land '.  The  wind,  not  the 
stranger,  occasions  an  epidemic  cold."  If  I  am  not  mistaken, 
Mr.  Macaulay  is  dead  ;  if  living,  this  solution  might  please 
him,  as  I  hope  it  will  Mr.  Boswell,  in  return  for  the  many 
agreeable  hours  his  works  have  afforded  us.' 

Johnson  expatiated  on  the  advantages  of  Oxford  for  learn- 
ing". 'There  is  here,  Sir,  (said  he,)  such  a  progressive  emu- 
lation. The  students  are  anxious  to  appear  well  to  their 
tutors ;  the  tutors  are  anxious  to  have  their  pupils  appear 
well  in  the  college ;  the  colleges  are  anxious  to  have  their 
students  appear  well  in  the  University ;  and  there  are  ex- 
cellent rules  of  discipline  in  every  college.  That  the  rules 
are  sometimes  ill  observed,  may  be  true ;  but  is  nothing 
against  the  system.  The  members  of  an  University  may, 
for  a  season,  be  unmindful  of  their  duty.  I  am  arguing 
for  the  excellency  of  the  institution  ^' 

Of  Guthrie*,  he  said,'  Sir,  he  is  a  man  of  parts.  He  has 
no   great   regular  fund   of  knowledge  ;    but   by  reading  so 


'  This  is  not  the  case.  Martin  (p.  9)  says  that  the  only  landing 
place  is  inaccessible  except  under  favour  of  a  neap  tide,  a  north-east 
or  west  wind,  or  with  a  perfect  calm.  He  himself  was  rowed  to  St. 
Kilda,  '  the  inhabitants  admiring  to  see  us  get  thither  contrary  to 
wind  and  tide  '  (p.  5). 

That  for  one  kind  of  learning  Oxford  has  no  advantages,  he  shows 
in  a  letter  that  he  wrote  there  on  Aug.  4,  1777.  '  I  shall  enquire,'  he 
says, 'about  the  harvest  when  I  come  into  a  region  where  any  thing 
necessary  to  life  is  understood.'  Piozzi  Letters, ^.^^^i).  At  Lichfield 
he  reached  that  region.  '  My  barber,  a  man  not  unintelligent,  speaks 
magnificently  of  the  harx-est '  (ib.  p.  351). 

^  Si^cpost,  Sept.  14,  1777.  "  See  ante,  i.  135. 

long, 


6o  Scotch  Authors.  [a. d.  1768. 

long,  and  writing  so  long,  he  no  doubt  has  picked  up  a 
good  deal.' 

He  said  he  had  lately  been  a  long  while  at  Lichfield,  but 
had  grown  very  weary  before  he  left  it.  BOSWELL.  '  I  won- 
der at  that.  Sir  ;  it  is  your  native  place.'  JOHNSON.  '  Why, 
so  is  Scotland  _)'^«r  native  place.' 

His  prejudice  against  Scotland  appeared  remarkably  strong 
at  this  time.  When  I  talked  of  our  advancement  in  litera- 
ture ', '  Sir,  (said  he,)  you  have  learnt  a  little  from  us,  and  you 
think  yourselves  very  great  men.  Hume  would  never  have 
written  History,  had  not  Voltaire  written  it  before  him^  He 
is  an  echo  of  Voltaire.'  BosWELL.  '  But,  Sir,  we  have  Lord 
Karnes  \'  Johnson.  '  You //c2"z/r  Lord  Kames.  Keep  him  ; 
ha,  ha,  ha !  We  don't  envy  you  him.  Do  you  ever  see  Dr. 
Robertson?'  BosWELL.  'Yes,  Sir.'  JOHNSON.  'Does  the 
dog   talk   of  me?'      BosWELL.  *  Lideed,  Sir,  he   does,  and 


'  The  advancement  had  been  very  rapid.  '  When  Dr.  Robertson's 
career  commenced,'  writes  Dugald  Stewart  in  his  Life  of  that  his- 
torian (p.  157), 'the  trade  of  authorship  was  unknown  in  Scotland.' 
Smollett,  in  Humphry  Clinker,  published  three  years  after  this  conver- 
sation, makes  Mr.  Bramble  write  (Letter  of  Aug.  8)  : — '  Edinburgh  is 
a  hot-bed  of  genius.  I  have  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  made  ac- 
quainted with  many  authors  of  the  first  distinction ;  such  as  the  two 
Humes  [David  Hume  and  John  Home,  whose  names  had  the  same 
pronunciation],  Robertson,  Smith,  Wallace,  Blair,  Ferguson,  Wilke, 
&c.'  To  these  might  be  added  Smollett  himself,  Boswell,  Reid,  Beat- 
tie,  Kames,  Monboddo.  Henry  Mackenzie  and  Dr.  Henry  began  to 
publish  in  1771.  Gibbon,  writing  to  Robertson  in  1779,  says; — 'I  have 
often  considered  with  some  sort  of  envy  the  valuable  society  which 
you  possess  in  so  narrow  a  compass.'     Stewart's  Robertson,  p.  363. 

^  See  post,  h'^xW  30,  1773,  where  Johnson  owned  that  he  had  not 
read  Hume.  J.  H.  Burton  {Life  of  Hume,  ii,  129),  after  stating  that 
'  Hume  was  the  first  to  add  to  a  mere  narrative  of  events  an  enquiry 
into  the  progress  of  the  people,  &c.,'  says : — '  There  seems  to  be  no 
room  for  the  supposition  that  he  had  borrowed  the  idea  from  Vol- 
taire's Essai  sur  les  Mosurs.  Hume's  own  Political  Discourses  are  as 
close  an  approach  to  this  method  of  inquiry  as  the  work  of  Voltaire; 
and  if  we  look  for  such  productions  of  other  writers  as  may  have  led 
him  into  this  train  of  thought,  it  would  be  more  just  to  name  Bacon 
and  Montesquieu.'  "  See  post,  May  8  and  13,  1778. 

loves 


Aetat,  59.]  The  future  life  of  brutes.  6 1 


loves  you.'  Thinking  that  I  now  had  him  in  a  corner, 
and  being  soHcitous  for  the  Hterary  fame  of  my  country,  I 
pressed  him  for  his  opinion  on  the  merit  of  Dr.  Robert- 
son's History  of  Scotland.  But,  to  my  surprise,  he  escaped. 
— '  Sir,  I  love  Robertson,  and  I  won't  talk  of  his  book'.' 

It  is  but  justice  both  to  him  and  Dr.  Robertson  to  add, 
that  though  he  indulged  himself  in  this  sally  of  wit,  he 
had  too  good  taste  not  to  be  fully  sensible  of  the  mer- 
its of  that  admirable  work. 

An  essay,  written  by  Mr.  Deane,  a  divine  of  the  Church  of 
England,  maintaining  the  future  life  of  brutes,  by  an  expli- 
cation of  certain  parts  of  the  scriptures",  was  mentioned,  and 
the  doctrine  insisted  on  by  a  gentleman  who  seemed  fond  of 
curious  speculation.  Johnson,  who  did  not  like  to  hear  of 
any  thing  concerning  a  future  state  which  was  not  authorised 
by  the  regular  canons  of  orthodoxy,  discouraged  this  talk  ; 
and  being  offended  at  its  continuation,  he  watched  an  op- 
portunity to  give  the  gentleman  a  blow  of  reprehension.  So, 
when  the  poor  speculatist,  with  a  serious  metaphysical  pen- 
sive face,  addressed  him, '  But  really.  Sir,  when  we  see  a  very 
sensible  dog,  we  don't  know  what  to  think  of  him  ;'  Johnson, 
rolling  with  joy  at  the  thought  which  beamed  in  his  eye, 
turned  quickly  round,  and  replied,  'True,  Sir:  and  when  we 
see  a  very  foolish  fclloiv,  we  don't  know  what  to  think  of 
him.'  He  then  rose  up,  stridcd  to  the  fire,  and  stood  for 
some  time  laughing  and  exulting. 

I  told  him  that  I  had  several  times,  when  in  Italy,  seen  the 
experiment  of  placing  a  scorpion  within  a  circle  of  burning 
coals;  that  it  ran  round  and  round  in  extreme  pain  ;  and  find- 
ing no  way  to  escape,  retired  to  the  centre,  and  like  a  true 
Stoick  philosopher,  darted  its  sting  into  its  head,  and  thus  at 

*  Sec  post,  April  30,  i77^,  April  29,  1778,  and  Oct.  10,  1779. 

"  An  Essay  on  the  Future  Life  of  Brutes.  By  Richard  Dean,  Curate 
of  Middlcton,  Manchester,  1767.  The  'part  of  the  Scriptures'  on 
which  the  author  chiefly  relies  is  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  viii.  19- 
23.  He  also  finds  support  for  his  belief  in  '  those  passages  in  Isaiah 
where  the  prophet  speaks  of  new  Heavens,  and  a  new  Earth,  of  the 
Lion  as  eating  straw  like  the  Ox,  &c.'     Vol.  ii.  pp.  x,  4. 

once 


62  The  future  life  of  brutes.  [a.d.  1768. 

once  freed  itself  from  its  woes.  '  This  vmst  end  'cm  '.'  I  said, 
this  was  a  curious  fact,  as  it  shewed  dcHberate  suicide  in  a 
reptile.  Johnson  would  not  admit  the  fact.  He  said,  Mau- 
pertuis''  was  of  opinion  that  it  does  not  kill  itself,  but  dies  of 
the  heat ;  that  it  gets  to  the  centre  of  the  circle,  as  the  cool- 
est place ;  that  its  turning  its  tail  in  upon  its  head  is  merely 
a  convulsion,  and  that  it  does  not  sting  itself.  He  said  he 
would  be  satisfied  if  the  great  anatomist  Morgagni,  after 
dissecting  a  scorpion  on  which  the  experiment  had  been 
tried,  should  certify  that  its  sting  had  penetrated  into  its 
head. 

'  The  words  that  Addison's  Cato  uses  as  he  lays  his  hand  on  his 
sword.     Act  V.  so.  i. 

-  I  should  think  it  impossible  not  to  wonder  at  the  variety  of  John- 
son's reading,  however  desultory  it  may  have  been.  Who  could  have 
imagined  that  the  High  Church  of  Englandman  would  be  so  prompt 
in  quoting  Maupertuis,  who,  I  am  sorry  to  think,  stands  in  the  list  of 
those  unfortunate  mistaken  men,  who  call  themselves  csprits  forts.  I 
have,  however,  a  high  respect  for  that  Philosopher  whom  the  Great 
Frederick  of  Prussia  loved  and  honoured,  and  addressed  pathetically 
in  one  of  his  Poems, — 

'  Maupertuis,  cher  Maupertuis, 

Que  fiotre  vie  est  peu  de  chose  T 
There  was  in  Maupertuis  a  vigour  and  yet  a  tenderness  of  sentiment, 
united  with  strong  intellectual  powers,  and  uncommon  ardour  of  soul. 
Would  he  had  been  a  Christian !  I  cannot  help  earnestly  venturing 
to  hope  that  he  is  one  now.  Boswell.  Voltaire  writing  to  D'Alem- 
bert  on  Aug.  25,  1759,  says:  — 'Que  dites-vous  de  Maupertuis,  mort 
entre  deux  capucins  ?'  Voltaire's  Works,  Ixii.  94.  The  stanza  from 
which  Boswell  quotes  is  as  follows : — 

'  O  Maupertuis,  cher  Maupertuis, 

Que  notre  vie  est  peu  de  chose ! 

Cette  fieur,  qui  brille  aujourd'hui, 

Demain  se  fane  a  peine  eclose; 

Tout  perit,  tout  est  emporte 

Par  la  dure  fatalite 

Des  arrets  de  la  destinee; 

Votre  vertu,  vos  grands  talents 

Ne  pourront  obtenir  du  temps 

Le  seul  delai  d'une  journee.' 
La  vie  est  un  Soji^e.     OLuvres  de  Frederic  II  (edit.  1849),  ^-  40- 

He 


Aetat.  59.J  The  crime  of  adultery.  63 

He  seemed  pleased  to  talk  of  natural  philosophy.  '  That 
woodcocks,  (said  he,)  fly  over  to  the  northern  countries  is 
proved,  because  they  have  been  observed  at  sea.  Swallows 
certainly  sleep  all  the  winter.  A  number  of  them  conglobu- 
late  together',  by  flying  round  and  round,  and  then  all  in  a 
heap  throw  themselves  under  water,  and  lye  in  the  bed  of  a 
river'.'  He  told  us,  one  of  his  first  essays  was  a  Latin  poem 
upon  the  glow-worm.  I  am  sorry  I  did  not  ask  where  it  was 
to  be  found. 

Talking  of  the  Russians  and  the  Chinese,  he  advised  me 
to  read  Bell's  travels  ^  I  asked  him  whether  I  should  read 
Du  Halde's  account  of  China  \  '  Why  yes,  (said  he,)  as  one 
reads  such  a  book ;  that  is  to  say,  consult  it.' 

He  talked  of  the  heinousness  of  the  crime  of  adultery,  by 
which  the  peace  of  families  was  destroyed.  He  said, '  Con- 
fusion of  progeny  constitutes  the  essence  of  the  crime ;  and 
therefore  a  woman  who  breaks  her  marriage  vows  is  much 
more  criminal  than  a  man  who  does  it  \  A  man,  to  be  sure, 
is  criminal  in  the  sight  of  GOD :  but  he  does  not  do  his  wife 
a  very  material  injury,  if  he  does  not  insult  her;  if,  for  in- 
stance, from  mere  wantonness  of  appetite,  he  steals  privately 
to  her  chambermaid.  Sir,  a  wife  ought  not  greatly  to  resent 
this.  I  would  not  receive  home  a  daughter  who  had  run  away 
from  her  husband  on  that  account.     A  wife  should  study  to 

'  Johnson  does  not  give  Co7iglobulate  in  his  Diciionnry ;  only  con- 
globe.  If  he  used  the  word  it  is  not  likely  that  he  said  '  conglobulate 
together.' 

"  Gilbert  White,  writing  on  Nov.  4,  1767,  after  mentioning  that  he 
had  seen  swallows  roosting  in  osier-beds  by  the  river,  says : — '  This 
seems  to  give  some  countenance  to  the  northern  opinion  (strange  as 
it  is)  of  their  retiring  under  water.'  White's  Selbornc,  Letter  xii.  See 
2\'i>o  post,  May  7,  1773. 

^  Travels  from  St.  Petersbutgh  in  Russia  to  divers  parts  of  Asia.  By 
John  Bell,  Glasgow,  1763:  4to.     2  vols. 

*  I.  D'Isracli  (Curiosities  of  Literature,  cd.  1834,  i.  194)  ranks  this 
book  among  Literary  Impostures.  '  Du  Halde  never  travelled  ten 
leagues  from  Paris  in  his  life  ;  though  he  appears  by  his  writings  to 
be  familiar  with  Chinese  scenery.'     See  ante,  \.  158. 

*  Sec  post,  Oct.  10,  1779. 

reclaim 


64  Superiority  of  talents  in  a  wife.     [a.d.  1768, 

reclaim  her  husband  by  more  attention  to  please  him.  Sir, 
a  man  will  not,  once  in  a  hundred  instances,  leave  his  wife 
and  go  to  a  harlot,  if  his  wife  has  not  been  negligent  of 
pleasing.' 

Here  he  discovered  that  acute  discrimination,  that  solid 
judgement,  and  that  knowledge  of  human  nature,  for  which 
he  was  upon  all  occasions  remarkable.  Taking  care  to  keep 
in  view  the  moral  and  religious  duty,  as  understood  in  our 
nation,  he  shewed  clearly  from  reason  and  good  sense,  the 
greater  degree  of  culpability  in  the  one  sex  deviating  from  it 
than  the  other  ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  inculcated  a  very  use- 
ful lesson  as  to  tlie  ivay  to  keep  him. 

I  asked  him  if  it  was  not  hard  that  one  deviation  from 
chastity  should  so  absolutely  ruin  a  young  woman.  JOHN- 
SON. '  Why,  no,  Sir ;  it  is  the  great  principle  which  she  is 
taught.  When  she  has  given  up  that  principle,  she  has  given 
up  every  notion  of  female  honour  and  virtue,  which  are  all 
included  in  chastity.' 

A  gentleman '  talked  to  him  of  a  lady  whom  he  greatly 
admired  and  wished  to  marry,  but  was  afraid  of  her  superi- 
ority of  talents.  '  Sir,  (said  he,)  you  need  not  be  afraid  ; 
marry  her.  Before  a  year  goes  about,  you'll  find  that  rea- 
son much  weaker,  and  that  wit  not  so  bright.'  Yet  the 
gentleman  may  be  justified  in  his  apprehension  by  one  of 
Dr.  Johnson's  admirable  sentences  in  his  life  of  Waller: 
'He  doubtless  praised  many^  whom  he  would  have  been 


'  Boswell,  in  his  correspondence  with  Temple  in  1767  and  1768, 
passes  in  review  the  various  ladies  whom  he  proposes  to  marry.  The 
lady  described  in  this  paragraph — for  the  '  gentleman  '  is  clearly  Bos- 
well— is  'the  fair  and  lively  Zelide,' a  Dutchwoman.  She  was  trans- 
lating his  Corsica  into  French.  On  March  24,  1768,  he  wrote, '  I  must 
have  her.'  On  April  26,  he  asked  his  father's  permission  to  go  over 
to  Holland  to  see  her.  But  on  May  14  he  forwarded  to  Temple  one 
of  her  letters.  'Could,'  he  said,  'any  actress  at  any  of  the  theatres 
attack  me  w;ith  a  keener  —  what  is  the  word?  not  fury,  something 
softer.  The  lightning  that  flashes  with  so  much  brilliance  may  scorch, 
and  does  not  her  esprit  do  so  ?'     Letters  of  Boswell,  pp.  144-150. 

^  In  the  original  it  is  some  not  many.     Johnson's  Works,  vii.  182. 

afraid 


Aetat.  59.]  Johison  s  watch.  65 

afraid  to  marry ;  and,  perhaps,  married  one  whom  he  would 
have  been  ashamed  to  praise.  Many  quahties  contribute 
to  domestic  happiness,  upon  which  poetry  has  no  colours 
to  bestow  ;  and  many  airs  and  sallies  may  delight  imagina- 
tion, which  he  who  flatters  them  never  can  approve.' 

He  praised  Signor  Baretti.  '  His  account  of  Italy  is  a  very 
entertaining  book' ;  and.  Sir,  I  know  no  man  who  carries  his 
head  higher  in  conversation  than  Baretti  *.  There  are  strong 
powers  in  his  mind.  He  has  not,  indeed,  many  hooks ;  but 
with  what  hooks  he  has,  he  grapples  very  forcibly.' 

At  this  time  I  observed  upon  the  dial-plate  of  his  watch  "^ 
a  short  Greek  inscription,  taken  from  the  New  Testament, 
Nv^  yap  ep^eruL*,  being  the  first  words  of  our  SavIOUR'S 
solemn  admonition  to  the  improvement  of  that  time  which 
is  allowed  us  to  prepare  for  eternity:  '  the  night  cometh,  when 
no  man  can  work.'  He  sometime  afterwards  laid  aside  this 
dial-plate ;  and  when  I  asked  him  the  reason,  he  said,  '  It 
might  do  very  well  upon  a  clock  which  a  man  keeps  in  his 
closet;  but  to  have  it  upon  his  watch  which  he  carries  about 
with  him,  and  which  is  often  looked  at  by  others,  might  be 

'  An  accoiait  of  the  Manners  and  Customs  of  Italy,  by  Joseph  Ba- 
retti, London,  1768.  The  book  would  be  still  more  entertaining  were 
it  not  written  as  a  reply  to  Sharp's  Letters  on  Italy.  Post,  under  April 
29,  1776. 

^  Mrs.  Piozzi  wrote  of  him  :  '  His  character  is  easily  seen,  and  his 
soul  above  disguise,  haughty  and  insolent,  and  breathing  defiance 
against  all  mankind ;  while  his  powers  of  mind  exceed  most  people's, 
and  his  powers  of  purse  are  so  slight  that  they  leave  him  dependent 
on  all.  Baretti  is  for  ever  in  the  state  of  a  stream  dammed  up ;  if  he 
could  once  get  loose,  he  would  bear  down  all  before  him.'  Hayward's 
Piozzi,  ii.  335. 

^  According  to  Hawkins  {Life,  p.  460),  the  watch  was  new  this  year, 
and  was,  he  believed,  the  first  Johnson  ever  had. 

*  St.fo/in,  ix.  4.  In  Pr.  and  Med.  p.  233  is  the  following: — '  Ejacu- 
lation imploring  diligence.  "O  God,  make  me  to  remember  that  the 
night  cometh  when  no  man  can  work."  '  Porson,  in  his  witty  attack 
on  Sir  John  Hawkins,  originally  published  in  the  Gent.  Mag.  for  1787, 
quotes  the  inscription  as  a  proof  of  Hawkins's  Greek.  *  Nr?  yap  tpx^rai. 
The  meaning  is  (says  Sir  John)  For  the  night  cometh.  And  so  it  is, 
Mr.  Urban.'     Porson  Tracts,  p.  337. 

II.— 5  censured 


66  BosweWs  head  full  of  Corsica.       [a.d.  i768. 

censured  as  ostentatious.     Mr.  Steevens  is  now  possessed  of 
the  dial-plate  inscribed  as  above. 

He  remained  at  Oxford  a  considerable  time  ' ;  I  was  obliged 
to  go  to  London,  where  I  received  his  letter,  which  had  been 
returned  from  Scotland. 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 

'My  dear  Boswell, 

'  I  have  omitted  a  long  time  to  write  to  you,  without  know- 
ing very  well  why.  I  could  now  tell  why  I  should  not  write ;  for 
who  would  write  to  men  who  publish  the  letters  of  their  friends, 
without  their  leave  ^  ?  Yet  I  write  to  you  in  spite  of  my  caution,  to 
tell  you  that  I  shall  be  glad  to  see  you,  and  that  I  wish  you  would 
empty  your  head  of  Corsica,  which  I  think  has  filled  it  rather  too 
long.  But,  at  all  events,  I  shall  be  glad,  very  glad  to  see  you. 
'  I  am,  Sir,  yours  affectionately, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  Oxford,  March  23,  1768.' 

I  answered  thus : 

'To  Mr.  Samuel  Joknson. 

'  London,  26th  April,  1768  '. 
'My  dear  Sir, 

'  I  have  received  your  last  letter,  which,  though  very  short, 
and  by  no  means  complimentary,  yet  gave  me  real  pleasure, 
because  it  contains  these  words,  "  I  shall  be  glad,  very  glad  to 
see  you."  Surely  you  have  no  reason  to  complain  of  my  publish- 
ing a  single  paragraph  of  one  of  your  letters  ;  the  temptation  to  it 
was  so  strong.     An  irrevocable  grant  of  your  friendship,  and  your 

'  He  thus  wrote  of  himself  from  Oxford  to  Mrs.  Thrale : — '  This 
little  dog  does  nothing,  but  I  hope  he  will  mend ;  he  is  now  reading 
Jack  the  Giant-killer.  Perhaps  so  noble  a  narrative  may  rouse  in  him 
the  soul  of  enterprise.'     Piozzi  Letters,  i.  9.  "^  See  atite,  ii.  4. 

'  Under  the  same  date,  Boswell  thus  begins  a  letter  to  Temple : — 
'  Your  moral  lecture  came  to  me  yesterday  in  very  good  time,  while  I 
lay  suffering  severely  for  immorahty.  If  there  is  any  firmness  at  all  in 
me,  be  assured  that  I  shall  never  again  behave  in  a  manner  so  unwor- 
thy the  friend  of  Paoli.  My  warm  imagination  looks  forward  with 
great  complacency  on  the  sobriety,  the  healthfulness,  and  the  worth 
of  my  future  life.'     Letters  of  Boswell,  p.  147. 

dignifying 


Aetat.  59.]    Boswell  and  the  Earl  of  Chatham.  67 

dignifying  my  desire  of  visiting  Corsica  with  the  epithet  of  "  a  wise 
and  noble  curiosity,"  are  to  me  more  valuable  than  many  of  the 
grants  of  kings. 

'  But  how  can  you  bid  me  "empty  my  head  of  Corsica '  ?"  My 
noble-minded  friend,  do  you  not  feel  for  an  oppressed  nation  brave- 
ly struggling  to  be  free  ?  Consider  fairly  what  is  the  case.  The 
Corsicans  never  received  any  kindness  from  the  Genoese  \  They 
never  agreed  to  be  subject  to  them.  They  owe  them  nothing  ;  and 
when  reduced  to  an  abject  state  of  slavery,  by  force,  shall  they  not 
rise  in  the  great  cause  of  liberty,  and  break  the  galling  yoke  ?  And 
shall  not  every  liberal  soul  be  warm  for  them  ?  Empty  my  head  of 
Corsica !  Empty  it  of  honour,  empty  it  of  humanity,  empty  it  of 
friendship,  empty  it  of  piety.  No !  while  I  live,  Corsica  and  the 
cause  of  the  brave  islanders  shall  ever  employ  much  of  my  atten- 
tion, shall  ever  interest  me  in  the  sincerest  manner. 
******* 

'  I  am,  &c. 

'James  Boswell.' 

'  Johnson  so  early  as  Aug.  21,  1766,  had  given  him  the  same  advice 
{a7ite,  ii.  25).  How  little  Boswell  followed  it  is  shewn  by  his  letter  to 
the  Earl  of  Chatham,  on  April  8,  1767,  in  which  he  informed  him  of 
his  intention  to  publish  his  Corsica,  and  concluded:  —  'Could  your 
Lordship  find  time  to  honour  me  now  and  then  with  a  letter.?  I  have 
been  told  how  favourably  your  Lordship  has  spoken  of  me.  To  cor- 
respond with  a  Paoli  and  with  a  Chatham  is  enough  to  keep  a  young 
man  ever  ardent  in  the  pursuit  of  virtuous  fame.'  Chathajn  Corres. 
iii.  246.  On  the  same  day  on  which  he  wrote  to  Johnson,  he  said  in  a 
letter  to  Temple, '  Old  General  Oglethorpe,  who  has  come  to  see  me, 
and  is  with  me  often,  just  on  account  of  my  book,  bids  me  not  marry 
till  I  have  first  put  the  Corsicans  in  a  proper  situation.  *'  You  may 
make  a  fortune  in  the  doing  of  it,"  said  he ;  "  or,  if  you  do  not,  you 
will  have  acquired  such  a  character  as  will  entitle  you  to  any  fort- 
une." '  Letters  of  Boswell,  p.  148.  Four  months  later,  Boswell  wrote  : 
— '  By  a  private  subscription  .in  Scotland,  I  am  sending  this  week;^7oo 
worth  of  ordnance  [to  Corsica]. . .  It  is  really  a  tolerable  train  of  artil- 
lery.' Ih.  p.  156.  In  1769  he  brought  out  a  small  volume  entitled 
British  Essays  in  favour  of  the  Brave  Corsicans.  By  Several  Hands. 
Collected  and  published  by  James  Boswell,  Esq. 

^  From  about  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  Corsica  had 
belonged  to  the  Republic  of  Genoa.  In  the  great  rising  under  Paoli, 
the  Corsicans  would  have  achieved  their  independence,  had  not  Genoa 
ceded  the  island  to  the  crown  of  France. 

Upon 


68  Popular  liberty.  [a.d.  1768. 


Upon  his  arrival  in  London  in  May,  he  surprised  me  one 
morning  with  a  visit  at  my  lodgings  in  Half-Moon-street ', 
was  quite  satisfied  with  my  explanation,  and  was  in  the 
kindest  and  most  agreeable  frame  of  mind.  As  he  had  ob- 
jected to  a  part  of  one  of  his  letters  being  published,  I 
thought  it  right  to  take  this  opportunity  of  asking  him  ex- 
plicitly whether  it  would  be  improper  to  publish  his  letters 
after  his  death.  His  answer  was, '  Nay,  Sir,  when  I  am  dead, 
you  may  do  as  you  will".' 

He  talked  in  his  usual  style  with  a  rough  contempt  of 
popular  liberty \  'They  make  a  rout  about  universal  lib- 
erty, without  considering  that  all  that  is  to  be  valued,  or 
indeed  can  be  enjoyed  by  individuals,  vs,  private  liberty.  Po- 
litical liberty  is  good  only  so  far  as  it  produces  private  liber- 
ty. Now,  Sir,  there  is  the  liberty  of  the  press,  which  you 
know  is  a  constant  topick\     Suppose  you  and  I  and  two 

'  Boswell,  writing  to  Temple  on  May  14  of  this  year,  says : — '  I  am 
really  XS\^  great  man  now.  I  have  had  David  Hume  in  the  forenoon, 
and  Mr.  Johnson  in  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day,  visiting  me.  Sir  J. 
Pringle  and  Dr.  Franklin  dined  with  me  to-day;  and  Mr.  Johnson  and 
General  Oglethorpe  one  day,  Mr.  Garrick  alone  another,  and  David 
Hume  and  some  more  literati  another,  dine  with  me  next  week.  I 
give  admirable  dinners  and  good  claret ;  and  the  moment  I  go  abroad 
again,  which  will  be  in  a  day  or  two,  I  set  up  my  chariot.  This  is  en- 
joying the  fruit  of  my  labours,  and  appearing  like  the  friend  of  Paoli.' 
Letters  of  Boswell,  p.  151. 

^  See  j2^c^/,  April  12,  1778,  and  May  8,  1781. 

^  The  talk  arose  no  doubt  from  the  general  election  that  had  just 
been  held  amid  all  the  excitement  about  Wilkes.  Dr.  Franklin  {Me- 
moirs, iii.  307),  in  a  letter  dated  April  16,  1768,  describes  the  riots  in 
London.  He  had  seen  '  the  mob  requiring  gentlemen  and  ladies  of 
all  ranks  as  they  passed  in  their  carriages,  to  shout  for  Wilkes  and 
liberty,  marking  the  same  words  on  all  their  coaches  with  chalk,  and 
No.  45  on  every  door.  I  went  last  week  to  Winchester,  and  observed 
that  for  fifteen  miles  out  of  town  there  was  scarce  a  door  or  window 
shutter  next  the  road  unmarked ;  and  this  continued  here  and  there 
quite  to  Winchester.' 

*  In  his  Vindication  of  the  Licensers  of  the  Stage,  he  thus  writes  : — 
'  If  I  might  presume  to  advise  them  [the  Ministers]  upon  this  great 
affair,  I  should  dissuade  them  from  any  direct  attempt  upon  the  lib- 
hundred 


Aetat.  59.]  Attacks  on  Authors.  69 

hundred  more  were  restrained  from  printing  our  thoughts  : 
what  then  ?  What  proportion  would  that  restraint  upon  us 
bear  to  the  private  happiness  of  the  nation '  ?' 

This  mode  of  representing  the  inconveniences  of  restraint 
as  Hght  and  insignificant,  was  a  kind  of  sophistry  in  which 
he  dehghted  to  indulge  himself,  in  opposition  to  the  extreme 
laxity  for  which  it  has  been  fashionable  for  too  many  to  argue, 
when  it  is  evident,  upon  reflection,  that  the  very  essence  of 
government  is  restraint ;  and  certain  it  is,  that  as  government 
produces  rational  happiness,  too  much  restraint  is  better  than 
too  little.  But  when  restraint  is  unnecessary,  and  so  close  as 
to  gall  those  who  are  subject  to  it,  the  people  may  and  ought 
to  remonstrate ;  and,  if  relief  is  not  granted,  to  resist.  Of 
this  manly  and  spirited  principle,  no  man  was  more  convinced 
than  Johnson  himself  \ 

About  this  time  Dr.  Kenrick'  attacked  him,  through  my 
sides,  in  a  pamphlet,  entitled  An  Epistle  to  James  Boswcll, 

erty  of  the  press,  which  is  the  darling  of  the  common  people,  and 
therefore  cannot  be  attacked  without  immediate  danger.'  Works,  v. 
344.  On  p.  191  of  the  same  volume,  he  shows  some  of  the  benefits 
that  arise  in  England  from  '  the  boundless  liberty  with  which  every 
man  may  write  his  own  thoughts.'  See  also  in  his  Life  of  Miltoti,  the 
passage  about  Areopagitica,  ib.  vii.  82.  The  liberty  of  the  press  was 
likely  to  be  '  a  constant  topic'  Horace  Walpole  {Alemotrs  of  the  Reign 
of  George  III,  ii.  15),  writing  of  the  summer  of  1764,  says  : — '  Two  hun- 
dred informations  were  filed  against  printers ;  a  larger  number  than 
had  been  prosecuted  in  the  whole  thirty-three  years  of  the  last  reign.' 

'  '  The  sun  has  risen,  and  the  corn  has  grown,  and,  whatever  talk 
has  been  of  the  danger  of  property,  yet  he  that  ploughed  the  field 
commonly  reaped  it,  and  he  that  built  a  house  was  master  of  the  door ; 
the  vexation  excited  by  injustice  suffered,  or  supposed  to  be  suffered, 
by  any  private  man,  or  single  community,  was  local  and  temporary ;  it 
neither  spread  far  nor  lasted  long.'  Johnson's  Works,  vi.  170.  See  also 
post,  March  31,  1772.  Dr.  Franklin  {Memoirs,  iii.  215)  wrote  to  the 
Abbe  Morellet,  on  April  22,  1787  : — '  Nothing  can  be  better  expressed 
than  your  sentiments  are  on  this  point,  where  you  prefer  liberty  of 
trading,  cultivating,  manufacturing,  &c.,  even  to  civil  liberty,  this  being- 
affected  but  rarely,  the  other  every  hour.' 

"  See  ante,  July  6,  1763. 

'  See  ante,  Oct.  1765. 

Esq., 


/O  Attacks  on  Authors.  [a.d.  1768. 

Esq.,  occasioned  by  his  having  transmitted  the  moral  Writings 
of  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  to  Pascal  Paoli,  General  of  the  Corsi- 
cans'".  I  was  at  first  inclined  to  answer  this  pamphlet;  but 
Johnson,  who  knew  that  my  doing  so  would  only  gratify 
Kenrick,  by  keeping  alive  what  would  soon  die  away  of  itself, 
would  not  suffer  me  to  take  any  notice  of  it". 

*  'I  was  diverted  with  Paoli's  English  library.  It  consisted  of: — 
Some  broken  volumes  of  the  Spcctatoiir  and  Tatter  ;  Pope's  Essay  on 
ATan  ;  Gut  livers  Travels;  A  History  of  France  in  old  English;  and 
Barclay's  Apology  for  the  Quakers.  I  promised  to  send  him  some 
English  books. ...  I  have  sent  him  some  of  our  best  books  of  moral- 
ity and  entertainment,  in  particular  the  works  of  Mr.  Samuel  John- 
son.'    Boswell's  Corsica,  p.  169. 

"'  Johnson,  as  Boswell  believed,  only  once  '  in  the  whole  course  of 
his  life  condescended  to  oppose  anything  that  was  written  against 
him.'  (See  ante,  i.363.)  In  this  he  followed  the  rule  of  Bentley  and 
of  Boerhaave.  '  It  was  said  to  old  Bentley,  upon  the  attacks  against 
him,  "  Why,  they'll  write  you  down."  "  No,  Sir,"  he  replied  ;  "  depend 
upon  it,  no  man  was  ever  written  down  but  by  himself."'  Boswell's 
Hebrides,  Oct.  i,  1773.  Bentley  shewed  prudence  in  his  silence.  '  He 
was  right,'  Johnson  said, '  not  to  answer;  for,  in  his  hazardous  method 
of  writing,  he  could  not  but  be  often  enough  wrong.'  Boswell's  Heb- 
rides, Sept.  10,  1773.  'Boerhaave  was  never  soured  by  calumny  and 
detraction,  nor  ever  thought  it  necessary  to  confute  them  ;  "  for  they 
are  sparks,"  said  he,  "which,  if  you  do  not  blow  them,  will  go  out  of 
themselves."  '  Johnson's  Works,  vi.  288.  Swift,  in  his  Lines  on  Censure 
which  begin, — 

'Ye  wise  instruct  me  to  endure 
An  evil  which  admits  no  cure,' 
ends  by  saying  : — 

'The  most  effectual  way  to  baulk 
Their  malice  is — to  let  them  talk.' 

Swift's  Works,  xi.  58. 

Young,  in  his  Second  Epistle  to  Pope,  had  written  : — 

'Armed  with  this  truth  all  critics  I  defy; 
For  if  I  fall,  by  my  own  pen  I  die.' 

Hume,  in  his  Aitto.  (p.  ix.)  says  : — '  I  had  a  fixed  resolution,  which  I 
inflexibly  maintained,  never  to  reply  to  any  body.'  This  is  not  quite 
true.  See  J.  H.  Burton's  Life  of  Hume,  ii.  252,  for  an  instance  of  a 
violent  reply.  The  following  passages  in  Johnson's  writings  are  to 
the  same  effect : — '  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  few  attacks  either  of 

His 


Aetat.  59.]         Francis  Barber  sent  to  school.  71 

His  sincere  regard  for  Francis  Barber,  his  faithful  negro 
servant,  made  him  so  desirous  of  his  further  improvement, 
that  he  now  placed  him  at  a  school  at  Bishop  Stortford,  in 
Hertfordshire.  This  humane  attention  does  Johnson's  heart 
much  honour.  Out  of  many  letters  which  Mr.  Barber  re- 
ceived from  his  master,  he  has  preserved  three,  which  he 
kindly  gave  me,  and  which  I  shall  insert  according  to  their 
dates. 

'To  Mr.  Francis  Barber. 

'Dear  Francis, 

'  I  have  been  very  much  out  of  order.  I  am  glad  to  hear 
that  3'ou  are  well,  and  design  to  come  soon  to  see  you.  I  would 
have  you  stay  at  Mrs.  Clapp's  for  the  present,  till  I  can  determine 
what  we  shall  do.     Be  a  good  boy  \ 

'  My  compliments  to  Mrs.  Clapp  and  to  Mr.  Fowler.     I  am, 

'  Yours  affectionately, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'May  28,  1768.' 

ridicule  or  invective  make  much  noise,  but  by  the  help  of  those  that 
they  provoke.'  Piozzi  Letters,  ii.  289.  '  It  is  very  rarely  that  an  author 
is  hurt  by  his  critics.  The  blaze  of  reputation  cannot  be  blown  out, 
but  it  often  dies  in  the  socket.'  lb.  p.  no.  'The  writer  who  thinks 
his  works  formed  for  duration  mistakes  his  interest  when  he  mentions 
his  enemies.  He  degrades  his  own  dignity  by  shewing  that  he  was 
affected  by  their  censures,  and  gives  lasting  importance  to  names, 
which,  left  to  themselves  would  vanish  from  remembrance.'  John- 
son's Works,  vii.  294.  '  If  it  had  been  possible  for  those  who  were 
attacked  to  conceal  their  pain  and  their  resentment,  the  Dunczad 
might  have  made  its  way  very  slowly  in  the  world.'  lb.  viii.  276.  Haw- 
kins {Life  of  Johnson,  p.  348)  says  that, '  against  personal  abuse  John- 
son was  ever  armed  by  a  reflection  that  I  have  heard  him  utter: — 
"  Alas !  reputation  would  be  of  little  worth,  were  it  in  the  power  of 
every  concealed  enemy  to  deprive  us  of  it." '  In  his  Pari.  Debates 
(  Works,  X.  359),  Johnson  makes  Mr.  Lyttelton  say  : — '  No  man  can  fall 
into  contempt  but  those  who  deserve  it.'  Addison  in  The  Freeholder, 
No.  40,  says,  that '  there  is  not  a  more  melancholy  object  in  the  learned 
world  than  a  man  who  has  written  himself  down.'  See  also  Boswell's 
Hebrides,  near  the  end. 

'  Barber  had  entered  Johnson's  service  in  1752  {ante,  i.  277).  Nine 
years  before  this  letter  was  written  he  had  been  a  sailor  on  board  a 
frigate  {ante,  i.  403),  so  that  he  was  somewhat  old  for  a  boy. 

Soon 


72  Scotch  literati  awed  by  Johnson.       [a.d.  1708. 

Soon  afterwards,  he  supped  at  the  Crown  and  Anchor 
tavern,  in  the  Strand,  with  a  company  whom  I  collected  to 
meet  him.  They  were  Dr.  Percy,  now  Bishop  of  Dromore, 
Dr.  Douglas,  now  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  Mr.  Langton,  Dr. 
Robertson  the  Historian',  Dr.  Hugh  Blair,  and  Mr.  Thomas 
Davies,  who  wished  much  to  be  introduced  to  these  eminent 
Scotch  literati ;  but  on  the  present  occasion  he  had  very 
little  opportunity  of  hearing  them  talk,  for  with  an  excess 
of  prudence,  for  which  Johnson  afterwards  found  fault  with 
them,  they  hardly  opened  their  lips,  and  that  only  to  say 
something  which  they  were  certain  would  not  expose  them 
to  the  sword  of  Goliath ;  such  was  their  anxiety  for  their 
fame  when  in  the  presence  of  Johnson  ^  He  was  this  even- 
ing in  remarkable  vigour  of  mind,  and  eager  to  exert  him- 
self in  conversation,  which  he  did  with  great  readiness  and 
fluency;  but  I  am  sorry  to  find  that  I  have  preserved  but  a 
small  part  of  what  passed. 

He  allowed  high  praise  to  Thomson  as  a  poet ' ;  but  when 
one  of  the  company  said  he  was  also  a  very  good  man,  our 
moralist  contested  this  with  great  warmth,  accusing  him  of 
gross  sensuality  and  licentiousness  of  manners.  I  was  very 
much  afraid  that  in  writing  Thomson's  Life,  Dr.  Johnson 
would  have  treated  his  private  character  with  a  stern  sever- 
ity, but  I  was  agreeably  disappointed ;  and  I  may  claim  a 
little  merit  in  it,  from  my  having  been  at  pains  to  send  him 
authentick  accounts  of  the  affectionate  and  generous  con- 
duct of  that  poet  to  his  sisters,  one  of  whom,  the  wife  of 
Mr.  Thomson,  schoolmaster  at  Lanark,  I  knew,  and  was  pre- 
sented by  her  with  three  of  his  letters,  one  of  which  Dr. 
Johnson  has  inserted  in  his  Lifc\ 

'  Boswell,  writing  to  Temple  on  May  14  of  this  year,  says : — '  Dr. 
Robertson  is  come  up  laden  with  his  Charles  V — three  large  quartos;  he 
has  been  offered  three  thousand  guineas  for  it.'  Letters  of  Boswell,  p.  1 52. 

'  In  like  manner  the  professors  at  Aberdeen  and  Glasgow  seemed 
afraid  to  speak  in  his  presence.  See  Boswell 's  Hebrides,  Aug.  23,  and 
Oct.  29,  1773.     See  ^\?,o  post,  April  29,  1778. 

^  See  ante,  July  28,  1763. 

*  Johnson,  in  inserting  this  letter,  says  (  Works,  viii.  374) : — '  I  corn- 
He 


Aetat.  59.]  Dr.  Mouiisey.  73 

He  was  vehement  against  old  Dr.  Mounsey,  of  Chelsea 
College ',  as  '  a  fellow  who  swore  and  talked  bawdy.'  '  I 
have  been  often  in  his  company,  (said  Dr.  Percy,)  and  never 
heard  him  swear  or  talk  bawdy.'  Mr.  Davies,  who  sat  next 
to  Dr.  Percy,  having  after  this  had  some  conversation  aside 
with  him,  made  a  discovery  which,  in  his  zeal  to  pay  court 
to  Dr.  Johnson,  he  eagerly  proclaimed  aloud  from  the  foot 
of  the  table :  '  O,  Sir,  I  have  found  out  a  very  good  reason 
why  Dr.  Percy  never  heard  Mounsey  swear  or  talk  bawdy ; 
for  he  tells  me,  he  never  saw  him  but  at  the  Duke  of  North- 
umberland's table.'  'And  so.  Sir,  (said  Johnson  loudly,  to 
Dr.  Percy,)  you  would  shield  this  man  from  the  charge  of 
swearing  and  talking  bawdy,  because  he  did  not  do  so  at 
the  Duke  of  Northumberland's  table.  Sir,  you  might  as 
well  tell  us  that  you  had  seen  him  hold  up  his  hand  at  the 
Old  Bailey,  and  he  neither  swore  nor  talked  bawdy ;  or  that 
you  had  seen  him  in  the  cart  at  Tyburn,  and  he  neither  swore 
nor  talked  bawdy.  And  is  it  thus,  Sir,  that  you  presume  to 
controvert  what  I  have  related  ?'  Dr.  Johnson's  animad- 
version was  uttered  in  such  a  manner,  that  Dr.  Percy  seemed 
to  be  displeased,  and  soon  afterwards  left  the  company,  of 
which  Johnson  did  not  at  that  time  take  any  notice. 

Swift  having  been  mentioned,  Johnson,  as  usual,  treated 

municate  it  with  much  pleasure,  as  it  gives  me  at  once  an  opportunity 
of  recording  the  fraternal  kindness  of  Thomson,  and  reflecting  on  the 
friendly  assistance  of  Mr.  Boswell,  from  whom  I  received  it.'  Secposf, 
July  9,  1777,  and  June  18,  1778. 

'  Murphy,  in  his  Ltfe  of  Garrick,  p.  183,  says  that  Garrick  once 
brought  Dr.  Munsey — so  he  writes  the  name — to  call  on  him.  '  Gar- 
rick entered  the  dining-room,  and  turning  suddenly  round,  ran  to  the 
door,  and  called  out,  "  Dr.  Munsey,  where  are  you  going  ?"  "  Up  stairs 
to  see  the  author,"  said  Munsey.  "  Pho  !  pho  !  come  down,  the  author 
is  here.  "  Dr.  Munsey  came,  and,  as  he  entered  the  room,  said  in  his 
free  way,  "  You  scoundrel !  I  was  going  up  to  the  garret.  Who  could 
think  of  finding  an  author  on  the  first  floor?"  '  Mrs.  Montagu  wrote 
to  Lord  Lyttelton  from  Tunbridge  in  1760: — 'The  great  Monsey  {sic) 
came  hither  on  Friday.  .  .  .  He  is  great  in  the  coffee-house,  great  in  the 
rooms,  and  great  on  the  pantiles.'  Montagu  Letters,  iv.  391.  In  Rog- 
ers's Table-Talk,  p.  21 1,  there  is  a  curious  account  of  him. 

him 


74  Swift's  Conduct  of  the  Allies,     [a.d.  1768. 

him  with  httle  respect  as  an  authour'.  Some  of  us  en- 
deavoured to  support  the  Dean  of  St.  Patrick's  by  various 
arguments.  One  in  particular  praised  his  Conduct  of  the  Al- 
lies. Johnson.  '  Sir,  his  Conduct  of  tJie  Allies  is  a  perform- 
ance of  very  Httle  ability.'  '  Surely,  Sir,  (said  Dr.  Douglas,) 
you  must  allow  it  has  strong  facts  I'  JOHNSON.  'Why  yes, 
Sir;  but  what  is  that  to  the  merit  of  the  composition?  In 
the  Sessions-paper  of  the  Old  Bailey  there  are  strong  facts. 
Housebreaking  is  a  strong  fact ;  robbery  is  a  strong  fact ;  and 
murder  is  a  mighty  strong  fact ;  but  is  great  praise  due  to  the 
historian  of  those  strong  facts?  No,  Sir.  Swift  has  told 
what  he  had  to  tell  distinctly  enough,  but  that  is  all.  He 
had  to  count  ten,  and  he  has  counted  it  right  ^'  Then  rec- 
ollecting that  Mr.  Davies,  by  acting  as  an  informer,  had 
been  the  occasion  of  his  talking  somewhat  too  harshly  to  his 
friend  ^  Dr.  Percy,  for  which,  probably,  when  the  first  ebul- 
lition was  over,  he  felt  some  compunction,  he  took  an  op- 
portunity to  give  him  a  hit ;  so  added,  with  a  preparatory 

'  See  a}itc,  July  26, 1763. 

*  My  respectable  friend,  upon  reading  this  passage,  observed,  that 
he  probably  must  have  said  not  simply,  '  strong  facts,'  but  '  strong 
facts  well  arranged.'  His  lordship,  however,  knows  too  well  the  value 
of  written  documents  to  insist  on  setting  his  recollection  against  my 
notes  taken  at  the  time.  He  does  not  attempt  to  traverse  the  record. 
The  fact,  perhaps,  may  have  been,  either  that  the  additional  words 
escaped  me  in  the  noise  of  a  numerous  company,  or  that  Dr.  Johnson, 
from  his  impetuosity,  and  eagerness  to  seize  an  opportunity  to  make 
a  lively  retort,  did  not  allow  Dr.  Douglas  to  finish  his  sentence.    Bos- 

WELL. 

^  '  It  is  boasted  that  between  November  [1712]  and  January,  elev- 
en thousand  [of  The  Conduct  of  t lie  Allies]  were  sold.  .  .  .  Yet,  surely 
whoever  surveys  this  wonder-working  pamphlet  with  cool  perusal, 
will  confess  that  its  efhcacy  was  supplied  by  the  passions  of  its  read- 
ers ;  that  it  operates  by  the  mere  weight  of  facts,  with  very  little  as- 
sistance from  the  hand  that  produced  them.'  Johnson's  Works,  viii. 
203. 

*  '  Every  great  man,  of  whatever  kind  be  his  greatness,  has  among 
his  friends  those  who  officiously  or  insidiously  quicken  his  attention 
to  offences,  heighten  his  disgust,  and  stimulate  his  resentment.'  lb. 
viii.  266. 

laugh, 


Aetat.  59.]     Joh7ison  s  roughuess  of  manners.  75 

laugh, '  Why,  Sir,  Tom  Davies  might  have  written  The  Con- 
duct of  the  Allies.''  Poor  Tom  being  thus  suddenly  dragged 
into  ludicrous  notice  in  presence  of  the  Scottish  Doctors, 
to  whom  he  was  ambitious  of  appearing  to  advantage,  was 
grievously  mortified.  Nor  did  his  punishment  rest  here ; 
for  upon  subsequent  occasions,  whenever  he,  '  statesman  all 
overV*  assumed  a  strutting  importance,  I  used  to  hail  him 
— '  the  Authour  of  The  Conduct  of  the  Allies' 

When  I  called  upon  Dr.  Johnson  next  morning,  I  found 
him  highly  satisfied  with  his  colloquial  prowess  the  pre- 
ceding evening.  *■  Well,  (said  he,)  we  had  good  talk\' 
BOSWELL.  '  Yes,  Sir ;  you  tossed  and  gored  several  per- 
sons \' 

The  late  Alexander,  Earl  of  Eglintoune  \  who  loved  wit 
more  than  wine,  and  men  of  genius  more  than  sycophants, 
had  a  great  admiration  of  Johnson  ;  but  from  the  remark- 
able elegance  of  his  own  manners,  was,  perhaps,  too  delicate- 
ly sensible  of  the  roughness  which  sometimes  appeared  in 
Johnson's  behaviour.  One  evening  about  this  time,  when 
his  Lordship  did  me  the  honour  to  sup  at  my  lodgings  with 
Dr.  Robertson  and  several  other  men  of  literary  distinction, 
he  regretted  that  Johnson  had  not  been  educated  with  more 
refinement,  and  lived  more  in  polished  society.  '  No,  no,  my 
Lord,  (said  Signor  Baretti,)  do  with  him  what  you  would,  he 
would  always  have  been  a  bear.'  '  True,  (answered  the  Earl, 
with  a  smile,)  but  he  would  have  been  a  dancing  bear.' 

To  obviate  all  the  reflections  which  have  gone  round  the 
world  to  Johnson's  prejudice,  by  applying  to  him  the  epi- 
thet of  a  bear",  let  me  impress  upon  my  readers  a  just  and 
happy  saying  of  my  friend  Goldsmith,  who  knew  him  well : 
'Johnson,  to  be  sure,  has  a  roughness  in  his  manner;  but 

*  See  the  hard  drawing  of  him  in  Churchill's  Rosciad.  BoswELL. 
See  ante,  1.  452,  note  4. 

'  For  talk,  see  post,  under  March  30, 1 783. 

^  See /^^/,  Oct.  6, 1769,  and  May  8,  1778,  where  Johnson  tosses  Bos- 
well. 

^  ^(ta  post,  Sept.  23,  !777,  and  Boswell's  Hcbruics,  Nov.  i,  1773. 

^  See  ^<?^A  Nov.  27, 1773,  note,  April  7, 1775,  and  under  May  8, 1781. 

no 


76  Royal  Academy  Professors.  [a.d.  1769. 

no  man  alive  has  a  more  tender  heart.  He  has  nothing  of 
the  bear  but  his  skin." 

1769:  ^ETAT.  60.] — In  1769,  so  far  as  I  can  discover,  the 
publick  was  favoured  with  nothing  of  Johnson's  composi- 
tion, either  for  himself  or  any  of  his  friends'.  His  Medita- 
tions'^ too  strongly  prove  that  he  suffered  much  both  in 
body  and  mind  ;  yet  was  he  perpetually  striving  against 
evil,  and  nobly  endeavouring  to  advance  his  intellectual  and 
devotional  improvement.  Every  generous  and  grateful  heart 
must  feel  for  the  distresses  of  so  eminent  a  benefactor  to 
mankind  ;  and  now  that  his  unhappiness  is  certainly  known, 
must  respect  that  dignity  of  character  which  prevented  him 
from  complaining. 

His  Majesty  having  the  preceding  year  instituted  the 
Royal  Academy  of  Arts  in  London,  Johnson  had  now  the 
honour  of  being  appointed  Professor  in  Ancient  Literature  ^ 

'  He  wrote  the  character  of  Mr.  Mudge.  See  post,  under  March  20, 
1781. 

^  '  Sept.  18, 1769.  This  day  completes  the  sixtieth  year  of  my  age. . . . 
The  last  year  has  been  wholly  spent  in  a  slow  progress  of  recovery.' 
Fr.  and  Med.  p.  8$. 

^  In  which  place  he  has  been  succeeded  by  Bennet  Langton,  Esq. 
"When  that  truly  religious  gentleman  was  elected  to  this  honorary 
Professorship,  at  the  same  time  that  Edward  Gibbon,  Esq.,  noted  for 
introducing  a  kind  of  sneering  infidelity  into  his  Historical  Writings, 
was  elected  Professor  in  Ancient  History,  in  the  room  of  Dr.  Gold- 
smith, I  observed  that  it  brought  to  my  mind, '  Wicked  Will  Whiston 
and  good  Mr.  Ditton.'  I  am  now  also  of  that  admirable  institution  as 
Secretary  for  Foreign  Correspondence,  by  the  favour  of  the  Academi- 
cians, and  the  approbation  of  the  Sovereign.  BoswELL.  Goldsmith, 
writing  to  his  brother  in  Jan.  1770,  said: — 'The  King  has  lately  been 
pleased  to  make  me  Professor  of  Ancient  History  in  a  Royal  Acade- 
my of  Painting,  which  he  has  just  established,  but  there  is  no  salary 
annexed,  and  I  took  it  rather  as  a  compliment  to  the  institution  than 
any  benefit  to  myself.  Honours  to  one  in  my  situation  are  something 
like  ruffles  to  one  that  wants  a  shirt.'  Prior's  Goldsmith,  ii.  221. 
'  Wicked  Will  Whiston,'  &c.,  comes  from  Swift's  Ode  for  Music,  On 
the  Longitude  (Swift's  Works,  ed.  1803,  xxiv.  39),  which  begins, — 

'  The  longitude  miss'd  on 
By  wicked  Will  Whiston ; 

In 


Aetat.  60.]  Reverend  Thotnas  Warton.  jj 


In  the  course  of  the  year  he  wrote  some  letters  to  Mrs. 
Thrale,  passed  some  part  of  the  summer  at  Oxford  and  at 
Lichfield,  and  when  at  Oxford  wrote  the  following  letter: — 

'To  THE  Reverend  Mr.  Thomas  Warton. 

'  Dear  Sir, 

'  Many  years  ago,  when  I  used  to  read  in  the  library  of  your 
College,  I  promised  to  recompence  the  College  for  that  permission, 
by  adding  to  their  books  a  Baskerville's  Virgil.  I  have  now  sent 
it,  and  desire  you  to  reposit  it  on  the  shelves  in  my  name  '. 

'  If  you  will  be  pleased  to  let  me  know  when  you  have  an  hour 
of  leisure,  I  will  drink  tea  with  you.  I  am  engaged  for  the  after- 
noon, to-morrow  and  on  Friday :  all  my  mornings  are  my  own  *. 

'  I  am,  &c., 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  May  31, 1769.' 

I  came  to  London  in  the  autumn,  and  having  informed 
him  that  I  was  going  to  be  married  in  a  few  months,  I 
wished  to  have  as  much  of  his  conversation  as  I  could  be- 
fore engaging  in  a  state  of  life  which  would  probably  keep 
me  more  in  Scotland,  and  prevent  me  seeing  him  so  often 

And  not  better  hit  on 
By  good  Master  Ditton.' 

It  goes  on  so  grossly  and  so  offensively  as  regards  one  and  the  other, 
that  Boswell's  comparison  was  a  great  insult  to  Langton  as  well  as  to 
Gibbon. 

'  It  has  this  inscription  in  a  blank  leaf : — '  Hunc  libnim  D.  D.  Sam- 
uel Jo/mson,  CO  quod  Jtic  loci  siiidiis  intcrduni  vacaretl  Of  this  librar)-, 
which  is  an  old  Gothick  room,  he  was  very  fond.  On  my  observing 
to  him  that  some  of  the  modern  libraries  of  the  University  were  more 
commodious  and  pleasant  for  study,  as  being  more  spacious  and  airy, 
he  replied, '  Sir,  if  a  man  has  a  mind  to  prance,  he  must  study  at 
Christ-Church  and  All-Souls.'     Boswell. 

-  During  this  visit  he  seldom  or  never  dined  out.  He  appeared  to 
be  deeply  engaged  in  some  literary  work.  Miss  Williams  was  now 
with  him  at  Oxford.  Bosweli,.  It  was  more  likely  the  state  of  his 
health  which  kept  him  at  home.  Writing  from  Oxford  on  June  27 
of  this  year  to  Mrs.  Thrale,  who  had  been  ill,  he  says  : — '  I  will  not  in- 
crease your  uneasiness  with  mine.  I  hope  I  grow  better.  I  am  very 
cautious  and  very  timorous.'     Piozzi  Letters,  i.  21. 

as 


78  The  Shakspeare  Jubilee.  [a.d.  1769. 

as  when  I  was  a  single  man  ;  but  I  found  he  was  at  Bright- 
hehnstone  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thrale.  I  was  very  sorry  that 
I  had  not  his  company  with  me  at  the  Jubilee,  in  honour  of 
Shakspeare,  at  Stratford-upon-Avon,  the  great  poet's  native 
town '.  Johnson's  connection  both  with  Shakspeare  and 
Garrick  founded  a  double  claim  to  his  presence  ;  and  it 
would  have  been  highly  gratifying  to  Mr.  Garrick.  Upon 
this  occasion  I  particularly  lamented  that  he  had  not  that 
warmth  of  friendship  for  his  brilliant  pupil,  which  we  may 
suppose  would  have  had  a  benignant  effect  on  both  ^    When 

'  Boswell  wrote  a  letter,  signed  with  his  own  name,  to  the  London 
Magazine  for  1769  (p.  451)  describing  the  Jubilee.  It  is  followed  by 
a  print  of  himself  '  in  the  dress  of  an  armed  Corsican  chief,'  and  by 
an  account,  no  doubt  written  by  himself.  It  says  : — '  Of  the  most  re- 
markable masks  upon  this  occasion  was  James  Boswell,  Esq.,  in  the 
dress  of  an  armed  Corsican  chief.  He  entered  the  amphitheatre 
about  twelve  o'clock.  On  the  front  of  his  cap  was  embroidered  in 
gold  letters,  Viva  La  Liberia  ;  and  on  one  side  of  it  was  a  handsome 
blue  feather  and  cockade,  so  that  it  had  an  elegant,  as  well  as  a  war- 
like appearance.  He  wore  no  mask,  saying  that  it  was  not  proper  for 
a  gallant  Corsican.  So  soon  as  he  came  into  the  room  he  drew  uni- 
versal attention.'  Cradock  {ATemoirs,  i.  217)  gives  a  melancholy  ac- 
count of  the  festival.  The  preparations  were  all  behind-hand  and  the 
weather  was  stormy.  '  There  was  a  masquerade  in  the  evening,  and 
all  zealous  friends  endeavoured  to  keep  up  the  spirit  of  it  as  long  as 
they  could,  till  they  were  at  last  informed  that  the  Avon  was  rising 
so  very  fast  that  no  delay  could  be  admitted.  The  ladies  of  our  par- 
ty were  conveyed  by  planks  from  the  building  to  the  coach,  and  found 
that  the  wheels  had  been  two  feet  deep  in  water.'  Garrick  in  1771 
was  asked  by  the  Stratford  committee  to  join  them  in  celebrating  a 
Jubilee  every  year,  as '  the  most  likely  method  to  promote  the  inter- 
est and  reputation  of  their  town.'  Boswell  caught  at  the  proposal 
eagerly,  and  writing  to  Garrick  said  : — '  I  please  myself  with  the  pros- 
pect of  attending  you  at  several  more  Jubilees  at  Stratford-upon- 
Avon  . '     Garrick  Cor  res.  i .  4 1 4, 43  5 . 

^  Garrick's  correspondents  not  seldom  spoke  disrespectfully  of  John- 
son. Thus,  Mr.  Sharp,  writing  to  him  in  1769,  talks  of  'risking  the 
sneer  of  one  of  Dr.  Johnson's  ghastly  smiles.'  lb.  i.  334.  Dr.  J.  Hoad- 
ly,  in  a  letter  dated  July  25,  1775,  says: — '  Mr.  Goodenough  has  writ- 
ten a  kind  of  parody  of  Puffy  Pensioner's  Taxation  no  Tyranny, 
under  the  noble  title  of  Resistance  no  Rebellion.'     lb.  ii.  68. 

almost 


Aetat.  60.]  BoswclV s  Corsicaii  Journal.  79 

almost  every  man  of  eminence  in  the  literary  world  was 
happy  to  partake  in  this  festival  of  genius,  the  absence  of 
Johnson  could  not  but  be  wondered  at  and  regretted.  The 
only  trace  of  him  there,  was  in  the  whimsical  advertisement 
of  a  haberdasher,  who  sold  Sliakspcariaii  ribbands  of  various 
dyes ;  and,  by  way  of  illustrating  their  appropriation  to  the 
bard,  introduced  a  line  from  the  celebrated  Prologue '  at  the 
opening  of  Drur>'-lane  theatre: 

'  Each  change  of  majiy-colour' d  life  he  drew.' 

From  Brighthelmstone  Dr.  Johnson  wrote  me  the  follow- 
ing letter,  which  they  who  may  think  that  I  ought  to  have 
suppressed,  must  have  less  ardent  feelings  than  I  have  al- 
ways avowed  ^ : 

'  See  a7ite,  i.  209. 

-  In  the  Preface  to  my  Account  of  Corsica,  published  in  1768, 1  thus 
express  myself : 

'  He  who  publishes  a  book  affecting  not  to  be  an  authour,  and  pro- 
fessing an  indifference  for  literary  fame,  may  possibly  impose  upon 
many  people  such  an  idea  of  his  consequence  as  he  wishes  may  be 
received.  For  my  part,  I  should  be  proud  to  be  known  as  an  au- 
thour, and  I  have  an  ardent  ambition  for  literary  fame ;  for,  of  all 
possessions,  I  should  imagine  literary  fame  to  be  the  most  valuable. 
A  man  who  has  been  able  to  furnish  a  book,  which  has  been  ap- 
proved by  the  world,  has  established  himself  as  a  respectable  char- 
acter in  distant  society,  without  any  danger  of  having  that  character 
lessened  by  the  observation  of  his  weaknesses.  To  preserve  an  uni- 
form dignity  among  those  who  see  us  every  day,  is  hardly  possible ; 
and  to  aim  at  it,  must  put  us  under  the  fetters  of  perpetual  restraint. 
The  authour  of  an  approved  book  may  allow  his  natural  disposition 
an  easy  play,  and  j^et  indulge  the  pride  of  superior  genius,  when  he 
considers  that  by  those  who  know  him  only  as  an  authour,  he  never 
ceases  to  be  respected.  Such  an  authour,  when  in  his  hours  of  gloom 
and  discontent,  may  have  the  consolation  to  think,  that  his  writings 
are,  at  that  very  time,  giving  pleasure  to  numbers ;  and  such  an  au- 
thour may  cherish  the  hope  of  being  remembered  after  death,  which 
has  been  a  great  object  to  the  noblest  minds  in  all  ages.'  Boswell. 
His  preface  to  the  third  edition  thus  ends: — 'When  I  first  ventured 
to  send  this  book  into  the  world,  I  fairly  owned  an  ardent  desire  for 
literary  fame.  I  have  obtained  my  desire:  and  whatever  clouds  may 
overcast  my  days,  I  can  now  walk  here  among  the  rocks  and  woods 

'To 


8o  Bosweirs  Corsican  Journal.  [a.d.  1769. 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 

'Dear  Sir, 

'  Why  do  you  charge  me  with  unkindness .''  I  have  omitted 
nothing  that  could  do  you  good,  or  give  you  pleasure,  unless  it  be 
that  I  have  forborne  to  tell  you  my  opinion  of  your  Account  of  Cor- 
sica. I  believe  my  opinion,  if  you  think  well  of  my  judgement, 
might  have  given  you  pleasure ;  but  when  it  is  considered  how 
much  vanity  is  excited  by  praise,  I  am  not  sure  that  it  would  have 
done  you  good.  Your  History  is  like  other  histories,  but  your 
Journal  is  in  a  very  high  degree  curious  and  delightful.  There  is 
between  the  History  and  the  Journal  that  difference  which  there 
will  always  be  found  between  notions  borrowed  from  without,  and 
notions  generated  within.  Your  History  was  copied  from  books ; 
your  Journal  rose  out  of  your  own  experience  and  observation. 
You  express  images  which  operated  strongly  upon  yourself,  and 
you  have  impressed  them  with  great  force  upon  your  readers.  I 
know  not  whether  I  could  name  any  narrative  by  which  curiosity 
is  better  excited,  or  better  gratified. 

'  I  am  glad  that  you  are  going  to  be  married ;  and  as  I  wish  you 
well  in  things  of  less  importance,  wish  you  well  with  proportionate 
ardour  in  this  crisis  of  your  life.  What  I  can  contribute  to  your 
happiness,  I  should  be  very  unwilling  to  with-hold ;  for  I  have  al- 
ways loved  and  valued  you,  and  shall  love  you  and  value  you  still 
more,  as  you  become  more  regular  and  useful :  effects  which  a  hap- 
py marriage  will  hardly  fail  to  produce. 

'  I  do  not  find  that  I  am  likely  to  come  back  very  soon  from  this 

place.     I  shall,  perhaps,  stay  a  fortnight  longer ;  and  a  fortnight  is 

a  long  time  to  a  lover  absent  from  his  mistress.     Would  a  fortnight 

ever  have  an  end  ? 

'  I  am,  dear  Sir, 

'  Your  most  affectionate  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  Brighthelmstone, 

Sept.  9, 1769.' 

After  his  return  to  town,  we  met  frequently,  and  I  con- 
tinued the  practice  of  making  notes  of  his  conversation, 
though  not  with  so  much  assiduity  as  I  wish   I  had  done. 

of  my  ancestors,  with  an  agreeable  consciousness  that  I  have  done 
something  worthy.'  The  dedication  of  the  first  edition  and  the  pref- 
ace of  the  third  are  both  dated  Oct.  29 — one  1767,  and  the  other  1768. 
Oct.  29  was  his  birthday. 

At 


Aetat.  60.]  General  Paoli.  8 1 

At  this  time,  indeed,  I  had  a  sufficient  excuse  for  not  being 
able  to  appropriate  so  much  time  to  my  Journal ;  for  Gener- 
al Paoli ',  after  Corsica  had  been  overpowered  by  the  mon- 
archy of  France,  was  now  no  longer  at  the  head  of  his  brave 
countrymen,  but  having  with  difficulty  escaped  from  his 
native  island,  had  sought  an  asylum  in  Great-Britain ;  and 
it  was  my  duty,  as  well  as  my  pleasure,  to  attend  much 
upon  him'.     Such  particulars  of  Johnson's  conversation  at 

'  Paoli's  father  had  been  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Corsicans  in  their 
revolt  against  Genoa  in  1734.  Paoli  himself  was  chosen  by  them  as 
their  General-in-chief  in  1755.  In  1769  the  island  was  conquered  by 
the  French.  He  escaped  in  an  English  ship,  and  settled  in  England. 
Here  he  stayed  till  1789,  when  Mirabeau  moved  in  the  National  As- 
sembly the  recall  of  all  the  Corsican  patriots.  Paoli  was  thereupon 
appointed  by  Louis  XVI  Lieutenant-general  and  military  command- 
ant in  Corsica.  He  resisted  the  violence  of  the  Convention,  and  was, 
in  consequence,  summoned  before  it.  Refusing  to  obey,  an  expedi- 
tion was  sent  to  arrest  him.  Napoleon  Buonaparte  fought  in  the 
French  army,  but  Paoli's  party  proved  the  stronger.  The  islanders 
sought  the  aid  of  Great  Britain,  and  offered  the  crown  of  Corsica  to 
George  III.  The  offer  was  accepted,  but  by  an  act  of  incredible  folly, 
not  Paoli,  but  Sir  Gilbert  Eliot,  was  made  Viceroy.  Paoli  returned  to 
England,  where  he  died  in  1807,  at  the  age  of  eighty-two.  In  1796 
Corsica  was  abandoned  by  the  English.  By  the  Revolution  it  ceased 
to  be  a  conquered  province,  having  been  formally  declared  an  inte- 
gral part  of  France.  At  the  present  day  the  Corsicans  are  proud  of 
being  citizens  of  that  great  country  ;  no  less  proud,  however,  are  they 
of  Pascal  Paoli,  and  of  the  gallant  struggle  for  independence  of  theii 
forefathers. 

'  According  to  the  Antt.Rcg.  (xii.  132)  Paoli  arrived  in  London  on 
Sept.  21.  He  certainly  was  in  London  on  Oct.  10,  for  on  that  day  he 
was  presented  by  Boswell  to  Johnson.  Yet  Wesley  records  in  his 
Journal  (iii.  370)  on  Oct.  13: — 'I  very  narrowly  missed  meeting  the 
great  Pascal  Paoli.  He  landed  in  the  dock  [at  Portsmouth]  but  a 
very  few  minutes  after  I  left  the  water  side.  Surely  He  who  hath 
been  with  him  from  his  youth  up  hath  not  sent  him  into  England  for 
nothing.'  In  the  Public  Advertiser  for  Oct.  4  there  is  the  following 
entry,  inserted  no  doubt  by  Boswell : — '  On  Sunday  last  General  Paoli, 
accompanied  by  James  Boswell,  Esq.,  took  an  airing  in  Hyde  Park  in 
his  coach.'  Prior's  Goldsmith,  i.450.  Horace  Walpole  writes  : — '  Pa- 
oli's character  had  been  so  advantageously  exaggerated  by  Mr.  Bos- 
well's  enthusiastic  and  entertaining  account  of  him,  that  the  Opposi- 
II. -6  this 


82  Humes  Scotticisms.  [a.d.  1769. 

this  period  as  I  have  committed  to  writing,  I  shall  here  in- 
troduce, without  any  strict  attention  to  methodical  arrange- 
ment. Sometimes  short  notes  of  different  days  shall  be 
blended  together,  and  sometimes  a  day  may  seem  impor- 
tant enough  to  be  separately  distinguished. 

He  said,  he  would  not  have  Sunday  kept  with  rigid  sever- 
ity and  gloom,  but  with  a  gravity  and  simplicity  of  behav- 
iour'. 

I  told  him  that  David  Hume  had  made  a  short  collection 
of  Scotticisms \  'I  wonder,  (said  Johnson,)  that  lie  should 
find  them.' 

tion  were  ready  to  incorporate  him  in  the  list  of  popular  tribunes. 
The  Court  artfully  intercepted  the  project ;  and  deeming  patriots  of 
all  nations  equally  corruptible,  bestowed  a  pension  of  ^looo  a  year  on 
the  unheroic  fugitive.'     Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  George  III,  iii.  387. 

'  Johnson,  writes  Mrs.  Piozzi  (^//^(T.  p.  228),  ridiculed  a  friend  'who, 
looking  out  on  Streatham  Common  from  our  windows,  lamented  the 
enormous  wickedness  of  the  times,  because  some  bird-catchers  were 
busy  there  one  fine  Sunday  morning.  "  While  half  the  Christian 
world  is  permitted,"  said  Johnson,  "to  dance  and  sing  and  celebrate 
Sunday  as  a  day  of  festivity,  how  comes  your  puritanical  spirit  so  of- 
fended with  frivolous  and  empty  deviations  from  exactness  ?  Who- 
ever loads  life  with  unnecessary  scruples.  Sir,"  continued  he, "  pro- 
vokes the  attention  of  others  on  his  conduct,  and  incurs  the  censure 
of  singularity,  without  reaping  the  reward  of  superior  virtue."  '  See 
Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  20,  1773. 

^  The  first  edition  of  Hume's  History  of  Etigtand  was  full  of  Scotti- 
cisms, many  of  which  he  corrected  in  subsequent  editions.  Malone. 
According  to  Mr.  J.  H.  Burton  {Life  of  Hume,  ii.  79), '  He  appears  to 
have  earnestly  solicited  the  aid  of  Lyttelton,  Mallet,  and  others,  whose 
experience  of  English  composition  might  enable  them  to  detect  Scot- 
ticisms.' Mr.  Burton  gives  instances  of  alterations  made  in  the  sec- 
ond edition.  He  says  also  that  '  in  none  of  his  historical  or  philo- 
sophical writings  does  any  expression  used  by  him,  unless  in  those 
cases  where  a  Scotticism  has  escaped  his  vigilance,  betray  either  the 
district  or  the  county  of  his  origin.'  lb.  i.  9.  Hume  was  shown  in 
manuscript  Reid's  Inquiry  into  the  Human  Mind.  Though  it  was  an 
attack  on  his  own  philosophy,  yet  in  reading  it '  he  kept,'  he  says, '  a 
watchful  eye  all  along  over  the  style,'  so  that  he  might  point  out  any 
Scotticisms.  lb.  ii.  1 54.  Nevertheless,  as  Dugald  Stewart  says  in  his 
Life  of  Robertson  (p.  214),'  Hume  fails  frequently  both  in  purity  and 

He 


Aetat.  GO.]  Johisoii  s  laxity  of  talk.  83 

He  would  not  admit  the  importance  of  the  question  con- 
cerning the  legahty  of  general  warrants '.  '  Such  a  power,' 
(he  observed,)  '  must  be  vested  in  every  government,  to  an- 
swer particular  cases  of  necessity;  and  there  can  be  no  just 
complaint  but  when  it  is  abused,  for  which  those  who  ad- 
minister government  must  be  answerable.  It  is  a  matter  of 
such  indifference,  a  matter  about  which  the  people  care  so 
very  little,  that  were  a  man  to  be  sent  over  Britain  to  offer 
them  an  exemption  from  it  at  a  halfpenny  a  piece,  very  few 
would  purchase  it.'  This  was  a  specimen  of  that  laxity  of 
talking,  which  I  have  heard  him  fairly  acknowledge " ;  for, 
surely,  while  the  power  of  granting  general  warrants  was 
supposed  to  be  legal,  and  the  apprehension  of  them  hung 
over  our  heads,  we  did  not  possess  that  security  of  freedom, 
congenial  to  our  happy  constitution,  and  which,  by  the  in- 
trepid exertions  of  Mr.  Wilkes,  has  been  happily  established. 

He  said,  '  The  duration  of  Parliament,  whether  for  seven 
years  or  the  life  of  the  King,  appears  to  me  so  immaterial, 
that  I  would  not  give  half  a  crown  to  turn  the  scale  one 
way  or  the  other'.  The  habeas  corpus  is  the  single  advan- 
tage which  our  government  has  over  that  of  other  countries.' 

On  the  30th  of  September  we  dined  together  at  the  Mitre. 
I  attempted  to  argue  for  the  superior  happiness  of  the  sav- 
age life,  upon  the  usual  fanciful  topicks.  JOHNSON.  '  Sir, 
there  can.  be  nothing  more  false.  The  savages  have  no 
bodily  advantages  beyond   those   of  civilised   men.      They 

grammatical  correctness.'     Even  in  his  later  letters  I  have  noticed 
Scotticisms. 

'  In  1763  Wilkes,  as  author  of  The  North  i?r//^;/,  No.  45,  had  been 
arrested  on  'a  general  warrant  directed  to  four  messengers  to  take 
up  any  persons  without  naming  or  describing  them  with  any  certain- 
ty, and  to  bring  them,  together  with  their  papers.'  Such  a  warrant  as 
this  Chief  Justice  Pratt  (Lord  Camden)  declared  to  be  'unconstitu- 
tional, illegal,  and  absolutely  void.'     Ann.  Reg.  vi.  145. 

'  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Oct.  24,  1773. 

^  In  the  Spring  of  this  year,  at  a  meeting  of  the  electors  of  South- 
wark, '  instructions  '  had  been  presented  to  Mr.  Thrale  and  his  brother- 
member,  of  which  the  twelfth  was:  —  'That  you  promote  a  bill  for 
shortening  the  duration  of  Parliaments.'     Gent.  Mag.  xxxix.  162. 

have 


84  Lord  Monboddo.  [a.d.  1769. 

have  not  better  health ;  and  as  to  care  or  mental  uneasi- 
ness, they  are  not  above  it,  but  below  it,  like  bears.  No, 
Sir ;  you  are  not  to  talk  such  paradox ' :  let  me  have  no 
more  on't.  It  cannot  entertain,  far  less  can  it  instruct. 
Lord  Monboddo ^  one  of  your  Scotch  Judges,  talked  a  great 
deal  of  such   nonsense.      I   suffered  Iiiui ;   but   I   will  not 

'  This  paradox  Johnson  had  exposed  twenty-nine  years  earlier,  in 
his  Life  of  Sir  Francis  Drake,  Works,  vi.  366.  In  Rasselas,  chap,  xi., 
he  considers  also  the  same  question.  Imlac  is  '  inclined  to  conclude 
that,  if  nothing  counteracts  the  natural  consequence  of  learning,  we 
grow  more  happy  as  our  minds  take  a  wider  range.'  He  then  enu- 
merates the  advantages  which  civilisation  confers  on  the  Europeans. 
'  They  are  surely  happy,'  said  the  prince, '  who  have  all  these  conven- 
iences.' 'The  Europeans,' answered  Imlac, 'are  less  unhappy  than 
we,  but  they  are  not  happy.  Human  life  is  everywhere  a  state  in 
which  much  is  to  be  endured  and  little  to  be  enjoyed.'  Writing  to 
Mrs.  Thrale  from  Skye,  Johnson  said:  —  'The  traveller  wanders 
through  a  naked  desert,  gratified  sometimes,  but  rarely,  with  the  sight 
of  cows,  and  now  and  then  finds  a  heap  of  loose  stones  and  turf  in  a 
cavity  between  rocks,  where  a  being  born  with  all  those  powers  which 
education  expands,  and  all  those  sensations  which  culture  refines,  is 
condemned  to  shelter  itself  from  the  wind  and  rain.  Philosophers 
there  are  who  try  to  make  themselves  believe  that  this  life  is  happy, 
but  they  believe  it  only  while  they  are  saying  it,  and  never  yet  pro- 
duced conviction  in  a  single  mind.'  Piozzi  Letters,  i.  1 50.  See  post, 
April  21  and  May  7,  1773,  April  26,  1776,  and  June  15,  1784. 

'  James  Burnet,  a  Scotch  Lord  of  Session,  by  the  title  of  Lord  Mon- 
boddo. '  He  was  a  devout  believer  in  the  virtues  of  the  heroic  ages, 
and  the  deterioration  of  civilised  mankind  ;  a  great  contemner  of  luxu- 
ries, insomuch  that  he  never  used  a  wheel  carriage.'  Walter  Scott, 
quoted  in  Croker's  Bosiuell,  p.  227.  There  is  some  account  of  him  in 
Chambers's  Traditions  of  Edinbtirgh,  \\.  175.  In  his  Origin  of  Lan- 
guage, to  which  Boswell  refers  in  his  next  note,  after  praising  Henry 
Stephen  for  his  Greek  Dictionary,  he  continues : — '  But  to  compile  a 
dictionary  of  a  barbarous  language,  such  as  all  the  modern  are  com- 
pared with  the  learned,  is  a  work  which  a  man  of  real  genius,  rather 
than  undertake,  would  choose  to  die  of  hunger,  the  most  cruel,  it  is 
said,  of  all  deaths.  I  should,  however,  have  praised  this  labour  of 
Doctor  Johnson's  more,  though  of  the  meanest  kind,'  &c.  Monbod- 
do's  Origin  of  Language,  v.  274.  On  p.  271,  he  says: — 'Dr.  Johnson 
was  the  most  invidious  and  malignant  man  I  have  ever  known.'  See 
post,  March  21,  1772,  May  8,  1773,  and  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  21,  1773. 

suffer 


Aetat.  60.]  Singularity.  85 

suffer  you'  BOSWELL.  '  But,  Sir,  does  not  Rousseau  talk 
such  nonsense?'  JOHNSON.  '  True,  Sir,  but  Rousseau  knozvs 
he  is  talking  nonsense,  and  laughs  at  the  world  for  star- 
ing at  him.'  BoswELL.  '  How  so,  Sir?'  JOHNSON.  'Why, 
Sir,  a  man  who  talks  nonsense  so  well,  must  know  that  he 
is  talking  nonsense.  But  I  am  afraid,  (chuckling  and  laugh- 
ing,) Monboddo  does  not  know  that  he  is  talking  nonsense'.' 
BosWELL.  '  Is  it  wrong  then.  Sir,  to  affect  singularity,  in 
order  to  make  people  stare?'  JOHNSON.  'Yes,  if  you  do 
it  by  propagating  errour:  and,  indeed,  it  is  wrong  in  any 
way.  There  is  in  human  nature  a  general  inclination  to 
make  people  stare ;  and  every  wise  man  has  himself  to  cure 
of  it,  and  does  cure  himself*.     If  you  wish  to  make  people 

'  His  Lordship  having  frequently  spoken  in  an  abusive  manner  of 
Dr.  Johnson,  in  my  company,  I  on  one  occasion  during  the  hfe-time 
of  my  illustrious  friend  could  not  refrain  from  retaliation,  and  repeated 
to  him  this  saying.  He  has  since  pubhshed  I  don't  know  how  many 
pages  in  one  of  his  curious  books,  attempting,  in  much  anger,  but 
with  pitiful  effect,  to  persuade  mankind  that  my  illustrious  friend  was 
not  the  great  and  good  man  which  they  esteemed  and  ever  will  es- 
teem him  to  be.     Boswell. 

-  Mrs.  Piozzi  {Anec.^.  io8)  says  : — '  Mr.  Johnson  was  indeed  unjustly 
supposed  to  be  a  lover  of  singularity.  Few  people  had  a  more  settled 
reverence  for  the  world  than  he,  or  was  less  captivated  by  new  modes 
of  behaviour  introduced,  or  innovations  on  the  long-received  customs 
of  common  life.'  In  writing  to  Dr.  Taylor  to  urge  him  to  take  a  cer- 
tain course,  he  says : — '  This  I  would  have  you  do,  not  in  compliance 
with  solicitation  or  advice,  but  as  a  justification  of  yourself  to  the 
world  ;  the  ivortd  has  always  a  right  to  be  regarded.'  Notes  and  (lueries, 
6th  S.  V.  343.  In  The  Adve?iturer,  No.  131,  he  has  a  paper  on  '  Singu- 
larities.' After  quoting  Fontenelle's  observation  on  Newton  that '  he 
was  not  distinguished  from  other  men  by  any  singularity,  either  natu- 
ral or  affected,'  he  goes  on  : — '  Some  may  be  found  who,  supported  by 
the  consciousness  of  great  abilities,  and  elevated  by  a  long  course  of 
reputation  and  applause,  voluntarily  consign  thcm.sclves  to  singularity, 
affect  to  cross  the  roads  of  life  because  they  know  that  they  shall  not 
be  jostled,  and  indulge  a  boundless  gratification  of  will,  because  they 
perceive  that  they  shall  be  quietly  obeyed.  .  .  .  Singularity  is,  I  think, 
in  its  own  nature  universally  and  invariably  displeasing.'  Writing  of 
Swift,  he  says  (  Works,  viii.  223): — '  Whatever  he  did,  he  seemed  willing 
to  do  in  a  manner  peculiar  to  himself,  without  sufliciently  considering 

stare 


86  Happiness  of  London.  [a.d.  176J). 

stare  by  doing  better  than  others,  why,  make  them  stare 
till  they  stare  their  eyes  out.  But  consider  how  easy  it  is 
to  make  people  stare  by  being  absurd.  I  may  do  it  by 
going  into  a  drawing-room  without  my  shoes.  You  re- 
member the  gentleman  in  TJic  Spectator,  who  had  a  com- 
mission of  lunacy  taken  out  against  him  for  his  extreme 
singularity,  such  as  never  wearing  a  wig,  but  a  night-cap. 
Now,  Sir,  abstractedly,  the  night  -  cap  was  best ;  but,  rela- 
tively, the  advantage  was  overbalanced  by  his  making  the 
boys  run  after  him  '.' 

Talking  of  a  London  life,  he  said, '  The  happiness  of  Lon- 
don is  not  to  be  conceived  but  by  those  who  have  been  in 
it.  I  will  venture  to  say,  there  is  more  learning  and  science 
within  the  circumference  of  ten  miles  from  where  we  now 
sit,  than  in  all  the  rest  of  the  kingdom.'  BOSWELL.  '  The 
only  disadvantage  is  the  great  distance  at  which  people  live 
from  one  another.'  JOHNSON.  '  Yes,  Sir ;  but  that  is  oc- 
casioned by  the  largeness  of  it,  which  is  the  cause  of  all  the 
other  advantages.'  BoSYv'ELL.  '  Sometimes  I  have  been  in 
the  humour  of  wishing  to  retire  to  a  desart.'  JOHNSON. 
'  Sir,  you  have  desart  enough  in  Scotland.' 

Although  I  had  promised  myself  a  great  deal  of  instruct- 
ive conversation  with  him  on  the  conduct  of  the  married 
state,  of  which  I  had  then  a  near  prospect,  he  did  not  say 
much  upon  that  topick.  Mr.  Seward  ^  heard  him  once  say, 
that  '  a  man  has  a  very  bad  chance  for  happiness  in  that 


that  singularity,  as  it  implies  a  contempt  of  the  general  practice,  is  a 
kind  of  defiance  which  justly  provokes  the  hostility  of  ridicule ;  he, 
therefore,  who  indulges  peculiar  habits  is  worse  than  others,  if  he  be 
not  better.'  See  atite,  Oct.  1765,  the  record  in  his  Journal: — 'At 
church.     To  avoid  all  singularity.' 

'  '  He  had  many  other  particularities,  for  which  he  gave  sound  and 
philosophical  reasons.  As  this  humour  still  grew  upon  him  he  chose 
to  wear  a  turban  instead  of  a  periwig ;  concluding  very  justly  that  a 
bandage  of  clean  linen  about  his  head  was  much  more  wholesome,  as 
well  as  cleanly,  than  the  caul  of  a  wig,  which  is  soiled  with  frequent 
perspirations.'     Spectator,  No.  576. 

^  ^^Q  post,  June  28,  1777,  note. 

state. 


Aetat.  60.]  Second  Marriages.  ^y 

state,  unless  he  marries  a  woman  of  very  strong  and  fixed 
principles  of  religion.'  He  maintained  to  me,  contrary  to 
the  common  notion,  that  a  woman  would  not  be  the  worse 
Avife  for  being  learned ' ;  in  which,  from  all  that  I  have  ob- 
served of  Artcinisias",  I  humbly  differed  from  him.  That 
a  woman  should  be  sensible  and  well  informed,  I  allow  to 
be  a  great  advantage  ;  and  think  that  Sir  Thomas  Over- 
bury  ^  in  his  rude  versification,  has  v^xy  judiciously  pointed 
out  that  degree  of  intelligence  which  is  to  be  desired  in  a 
female  companion  : 

'  Give  me,  next  good,  an  widcrstanding  7vift% 
By  Nature  wise,  not  learned  by  much  art ; 

Some  knoioledge  on  her  side  will  all  my  life 
More  scope  of  conversation  impart ; 

Besides,  her  inborne  virtue  fortifie ; 

They  are  most  firmly  good,  who  *  best  know  why.' 

When  I  censured  a  gentleman  of  my  acquaintance  for 
marrying  a  second  time,  as  it  shewed  a  disregard  of  his 
first  wife,  he  said, '  Not  at  all.  Sir.  On  the  contrary,  were 
he  not  to  marry  again,  it  might  be  concluded  that  his  first 
wife  had  given  him  a  disgust  to  marriage  ;  but  by  taking  a 
second  wife  he  pays  the  highest  compliment  to  the  first,  by 
shewing  that  she  made  him  so  happy  as  a  married  man,  that 
he  wishes  to  be  so  a  second  time  \'     So  ingenious  a  turn 

'  '  Depend  upon  it,'  he  said. '  no  woman  is  the  worse  for  sense  and 
knowledge.'  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Sept.  19,  1773.  See,  however,  post, 
1780,  in  Mr.  Langton's  Collection,  where  he  says: — 'Supposing  a  wife 
to  be  of  a  studious  or  argumentative  turn,  it  would  be  very  trouble- 
some.' 

2  '  Though  Artemisia  talks  by  hts 

Of  councils,  classics,  fathers,  wits  ; 

Reads  Malbranche,  Boyle,  and  Locke: 
Yet  in  some  things,  methinks  she  fails; 
'Twere  well  if  she  would  pare  her  nails, 
And  wear  a  cleaner  smock.' 
Swift.     Imitation  of  English  Poets,  Works,  xxiv.  6, 
"^  A  rF//V,  a  poem,  1614.    Boswk.ll.  *  In  the  original  Mrtr/, 

'  What  a  succession  of  compliments  was  paid  by  Johnson's  old 

did 


8S  BosweWs  visit  to  Streatham.         [a.d.  1769. 

did  he  give  to  this  dehcate  question.  And  yet,  on  another 
occasion,  he  owned  that  he  once  had  ahnost  asked  a  prom- 
ise of  Mrs.  Johnson  that  she  would  not  marry  again,  but 
had  checked  himself.  Indeed,  I  cannot  help  thinking,  that 
in  his  case  the  request  would  have  been  unreasonable ;  for 
if  Mrs.  Johnson  forgot,  or  thought  it  no  injury  to  the  mem- 
ory of  her  first  love, — the  husband  of  her  youth  and  the 
father  of  her  children, — to  make  a  second  marriage,  why 
should  she  be  precluded  from  a  third,  should  she  be  so  in- 
clined ?  In  Johnson's  persevering  fond  appropriation  of  his 
Tctty,  even  after  her  decease,  he  seems  totally  to  have  over- 
looked the  prior  claim  of  the  honest  Birmingham  trader.  I 
presume  that  her  having  been  married  before  had,  at  times, 
given  him  some  uneasiness ;  for  I  remember  his  observing 
upon  the  marriage  of  one  of  our  common  friends, '  He  has 
done  a  very  foolish  thing.  Sir;  he  has  married  a  widow, 
when  he  might  have  had  a  maid '.' 

We  drank  tea  with  Mrs.  Williams.  I  had  last  year  the 
pleasure  of  seeing  Mrs.  Thrale  at  Dr.  Johnson's  one  morn- 
ing, and  had  conversation  enough  with  her  to  admire  her 
talents,  and  to  shew  her  that  I  was  as  Johnsonian  as  her- 
self. Dr.  Johnson  had  probably  been  kind  enough  to  speak 
well  of  me,  for  this  evening  he  delivered  me  a  very  po- 
lite card  from  Mr.  Thrale  and  her,  inviting  me  to  Streat- 
ham. 

On  the  6th  of  October  I  complied  with  this  obliging  in- 
vitation, and  found,  at  an  elegant  villa,  six  miles  from  town, 
every  circumstance  that  can  make  society  pleasing.  John- 
son, though  quite  at  home,  was  yet  looked  up  to  with  an  awe, 
tempered  by  affection,  and  seemed  to  be  equally  the  care 
of  his  host  and  hostess.     I  rejoiced  at  seeing  him  so  happy. 


school-fellow,  whom  he  met  a  year  or  two  later  in  Lichfield,  who  '  has 
had,  as  he  phrased  it,  a  matter  of  fotir  wives,  for  which,'  added  John- 
son to  Mrs.  Thrale,  '  neitlier  you  nor  I  like  him  much  the  better.' 
Piozzi  Letters,  i.  41. 

'  Mr.  Langton   married  the  widow  of  the   Earl   of    Rothes ;  post, 
March  20,  1771. 

He 


Aetat.  60.]  Prior  s  love  verses.  89 

He  played  off  his  wit  against  Scotland  with  a  good 
humoured  pleasantry,  which  gave  me,  though  no  bigot  to 
national  prejudices,  an  opportunity  for  a  little  contest  with 
him.  I  having  said  that  England  was  obliged  to  us  for 
gardeners,  almost  all  their  good  gardeners  being  Scotchmen. 
JOHXSOX.  '  Why,  Sir,  that  is  because  gardening  is  much 
more  necessary  amongst  you  than  with  us,  which  makes  so 
many  of  your  people  learn  it.  It  is  all  gardening  with  you. 
Things  which  grow  wild  here,  must  be  cultivated  with  great 
care  in  Scotland.  Pray  now,  (throwing  himself  back  in  his 
chair,  and  laughing,)  are  you  ever  able  to  bring  the  sloe  to 
perfection  ?' 

I  boasted  that  we  had  the  honour  of  being  the  first  to 
abolish  the  unhospitable,  troublesome,  and  ungracious  cus- 
tom of  giving  vails  to  servants'.  JOHNSON.  'Sir,  you  abol- 
ished vails,  because  you  were  too  poor  to  be  able  to  give 
them.' 

Mrs.  Thrale  disputed  with  him  on  the  merit  of  Prior.  He 
attacked  him  powerfully ;  said  he  wrote  of  love  like  a  man 
who  had  never  felt  it :  his  love  verses  were  college  verses ; 
and  he  repeated  the  song  'Alexis  shunn'd  his  fellow  swains\' 
&c.,  in  so  ludicrous  a  manner,  as  to  make  us  all  wonder  how 
any  one  could  have  been  pleased  with  such  fantastical  stuff. 
Mrs.  Thrale  stood  to  her  gun  with  great  courage,  in  defence 

'  Horace  Walpole,  writing  of  1764,  says: — 'As  one  of  my  objects 
was  to  raise  the  popularity  of  our  party,  I  had  inserted  a  paragraph  in 
the  newspapers  observing  that  the  abolition  of  vails  to  servants  had 
been  set  on  foot  by  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  and  had  been  opposed  by 
the  Duke  of  Devonshire.  Soon  after  a  riot  happened  at  Ranelagh,  in 
which  the  footmen  mobbed  and  ill-treated  some  gentlemen  who  had 
been  active  in  that  reformation.'  Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  George  III, 
ii.3. 

'  'Alexis  shunn'd  his  fellow  swains, 

Their  rural  sports  and  jocund  strains, 

(Heaven  guard  us  all  from  Cupid's  bow!) 
He  lost  his  crook,  he  left  his  flocks ; 
And  wandering  thrf)ugh  the  lonely  rocks. 
He  nourished  endless  woe.' 

The  Despairing  SJicphcrd. 
of 


90  Mrs.  Thrale.  [a.d.  1769. 

of  amorous  ditties,  which  Johnson  despised,  till  he  at  last 
silenced  her  by  saying,  '  My  dear  Lady,  talk  no  more  of 
this.     Nonsense  can  be  defended  but  by  nonsense'.' 

Mrs.  Thrale  then  praised  Garrick's  talent  for  light  gay 
poetry ;  and,  as  a  specimen,  repeated  his  song  in  Florizel 
and Pcrdita,  and  dwelt  with  peculiar  pleasure  on  this  line: 

'I'd  smile  with  the  simple,  and  feed  with  the  poor'.' 

Johnson.  '  Nay,  my  dear  Lady,  this  will  never  do.  Poor 
David  !  Smile  with  the  simple  ; — What  folly  is  that?  And 
who  would  feed  with  the  poor  that  can  help  it  ?  No,  no ; 
let  me  smile  with  the  wise,  and  feed  with  the  rich.'  I  re- 
peated this  sally  to  Garrick,  and  wondered  to  find  his  sensi- 
bility as  a  writer  not  a  little  irritated  by  it.  To  sooth  him, 
I  observed,  that  Johnson  spared  none  of  us;  and  I  quoted 
the  passage  in  Horace  ^  in  which  he  compares  one  who  at- 
tacks his  friends  for  the  sake  of  a  laugh,  to  a  pushing  ox*, 
that  is  marked  by  a  bunch  of  hay  put  upon  his  horns :  '  fcE- 
luiin  Jiabct  in  cornn!  '  Ay,  (said  Garrick  vehemently,)  he  has 
a  whole  vww  of  it.' 

Talking  of  history,  Johnson  said, '  We  may  know  historical 
facts  to  be  true,  as  we  may  know  facts  in  common  life  to  be 
true.     Motives  are  generally  unknown.     We  cannot  trust  to 

'  '  In  his  amorous  effusions  Prior  is  less  happy  ;  for  they  are  not  dic- 
tated by  nature  or  by  passion,  and  have  neither  gallantry  nor  tender- 
ness. They  have  the  coldness  of  Cowley  without  his  wit,  the  dull 
exercises  of  a  skilful  versifier,  resolved  at  all  adventures  to  write  some- 
thing about  Chloe,  and  trj'ing  to  be  amorous  by  dint  of  study.  ...  In 
his  private  relaxation  he  revived  the  tavern,  and  in  his  amorous  ped- 
antry'he  exhibited  the  college.'     Johnson's  IVorAs,  v'ni.  i$,  22. 

^  Florizel  and  Perdita  is  Garrick's  version  of  The  Winter  s  Tale. 
He  cut  down  the  five  acts  to  three.  The  line,  which  is  misquoted,  is 
in  one  of  Perdita's  songs  : — 

'  That  giant  ambition  we  never  can  dread ; 
Our  roofs  are  too  low  for  so  lofty  a  head ; 
Content  and  sweet  cheerfulness  open  our  door. 
They  smile  with  the  simple,  and  feed  with  the  poor.' 

Act  ii.  sc.  I. 
^  Horace.     Sat.  \.  4,  34.  *  See  ante,  ii.  75. 

the 


Aetat.  60.]  Whitcfield' s  Oratory.  91 

the  characters  we  find  in  history,  unless  when  they  are  drawn 
by  those  who  knew  the  persons ;  as  those,  for  instance,  by 
Sallust  and  by  Lord  Clarendon  '.' 

He  would  not  allow  much  merit  to  Whitefield's  orator}-. 
'  His  popularity,  Sir,  (said  he,)  is  chiefly  owing  to  the  pecu- 
liarity of  his  manner.  He  would  be  followed  by  crowds 
were  he  to  wear  a  night-cap  in  the  pulpit,  or  were  he  to 
preach  from  a  tree  \' 

I  know  not  from  what  spirit  of  contradiction  he  burst  out 


'  Horace  Walpole  told  Malone  that  'he  was  about  twenty -two 
[twenty-four]  years  old  when  his  father  retired ;  and  that  he  remem- 
bered his  offering  one  day  to  read  to  him,  finding  that  time  hung 
heavy  on  his  hands.  "What,"  said  he,  "will  you  read,  child?"  Mr. 
Walpole,  considering  that  his  father  had  long  been  engaged  in  public 
business,  proposed  to  read  some  history.  "  No,"  said  he,  "  don't  read 
history  to  me  ;  that  can't  be  true."  '  Prior's  JMalonc,  p.  3S7.  See  also 
post,h.^x\S.  30,  1773,  and  Oct.  10,  1779. 

""  See  ante,  i.  ^6,  post,  Oct.  12,  1779,  and  Boswell's  Hebrides,  August 
15,1773.  Boswell  himself  had  met  Whitefield ;  for  mentioning  him 
in  his  Letter  to  the  People  of  Scotland  {p.  2^),  he  adds :— '  Of  whose 
pious  and  animated  society  1  had  some  share.'  Southey  thus  describes 
Whitefield  in  his  L/fe  of  IVcs/ey  (i.  126)  : — '  His  voice  excelled  both  in 
melody  and  compass,  and  its  fine  modulations  were  happily  accom- 
panied by  that  grace  of  action  which  he  possessed  in  an  eminent  de- 
gree, and  which  has  been  said  to  be  the  chief  requisite  of  an  orator. 
An  ignorant  man  described  his  eloquence  oddly  but  strikingly,  when 
he  said  that  Mr.  Whitefield  preached  like  a  lion.  So  strange  a  com- 
parison conveyed  no  unapt  a  notion  of  the  force  and  vehemence  and 
passion  of  that  oratory  which  awed  the  hearers,  and  made  them  trem- 
ble like  Felix  before  the  apostle.'  Benjamin  Franklin  writes  {Memoirs, 
i.  163): — 'Mr.  Whitefield's  eloquence  had  a  wonderful  power  over  the 
hearts  and  purses  of  his  hearers,  of  which  I  myself  was  an  instance.' 
He  happened  to  be  present  at  a  sermon  which,  he  perceived,  was  to 
finish  with  a  collection  for  an  object  which  had  not  his  approbation. 
'  I  silently  resolved  he  should  get  nothing  from  me.  I  had  in  my 
pocket  a  handful  of  copper  money,  three  or  four  silver  dollars,  and  five 
pistoles  in  gold.  As  he  proceeded  I  began  to  soften,  and  concluded 
to  give  the  copper.  Another  stroke  of  his  oratory  made  me  ashamed 
of  that,  and  determined  me  to  give  the  silv^cr ;  and  he  finished  .so  ad- 
mirably that  I  emptied  my  pocket  wholly  into  the  collector's  dish, 
gold  and  all.' 

into 


92  Joknsoji  and  Paoli.  [a.d.  17G9. 

into  a  violent  declamation  against  the  Corsicans,  of  whose 
heroism  I  talked  in  high  terms.  '  Sir,  (said  he,)  what  is  all 
this  rout  about  the  Corsicans  ?  They  have  been  at  war  with 
the  Genoese  for  upwards  of  twenty  years,  and  have  never  yet 
taken  their  fortified  towns.  They  might  have  battered  down 
their  walls,  and  reduced  them  to  powder  in  twenty  years. 
They  might  have  pulled  the  walls  in  pieces,  and  cracked  the 
stones  with  their  teeth  in  twenty  years.'  It  was  in  vain  to 
argue  with  him  upon  the  want  of  artillery :  he  was  not  to  be 
resisted  for  the  moment. 

On  the  evening  of  October  lo,  I  presented  Dr.  Johnson 
to  General  Paoli.  I  had  greatly  wished  that  two  men,  for 
whom  I  had  the  highest  esteem,  should  meet'.  They  met 
with  a  manly  ease,  mutually  conscious  of  their  own  abilities, 
and  of  the  abilities  of  each  other.  The  General  spoke  Italian, 
and  Dr.  Johnson  English,  and  understood  one  another  very 
well,  with  a  little  aid  of  interpretation  from  me,  in  which  I 
compared  myself  to  an  isthmus  which  joins  two  great  con- 
tinents. Upon  Johnson's  approach,  the  General  said, '  From 
what  I  have  read  of  your  works.  Sir,  and  from  what  Mr. 
Boswell  has  told  me  of  you,  I  have  long  held  you  in  great 
veneration.'  The  General  talked  of  languages  being  formed 
on  the  particular  notions  and  manners  of  a  people,  without 
knowing  which,  we  cannot  know  the  language.  We  may 
know  the  direct  signification  of  single  words ;  but  by  these 
no  beauty  of  expression,  no  sally  of  genius,  no  wit  is  con- 
veyed to  the  mind.  All  this  must  be  by  allusion  to  other 
ideas.  '  Sir,  (said  Johnson,)  you  talk  of  language,  as  if  you 
had  never  done  any  thing  else  but  study  it,  instead  of  govern- 
ing a  nation.'  The  General  said,  '  Qucsto  c  iin  troppo  gran 
compliment 0 ;'  this  is  too  great  a  compliment.  Johnson  an- 
swered, *  I  should  have  thought  so.  Sir,  if  I  had  not  heard  you 
talk.'  The  General  asked  him,  what  he  thought  of  the 
spirit  of  infidelity  which  was  so  prevalent^     JOHXSOX.  'Sir, 

*  '  What  an  idea  may  we  not  form  of  an  interview  between  such  a 
scholar  and  philosopher  as  Mr.  Johnson,  and  such  a  legislatour  and 
general  as  Paoli.'     Boswell's  Corsica,  p.  19S. 

'  Mr.  Stewart,  who  in  1768  was  sent  on  a  secret  mission  to  Paoli,  in 

this 


Aetat.  60.]  The  fashionable  infidelity.  93 

this  gloom  of  infidelity,  I  hope,  is  only  a  transient  cloud 
passing  through  the  hemisphere',  which  will  soon  be  dis- 
sipated, and  the  sun  break  forth  with  his  usual  splendour.' 
'  You  think  then,  (said  the  General,)  that  they  will  change 
their  principles  like  their  clothes.'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir,  if 
they  bestow  no  more  thought  on  principles  than  on  dress,  it 
must  be  so.'  The  General  said,  that  '  a  great  part  of  the 
fashionable  infidelity  was  owing  to  a  desire  of  shewing  cour- 
age. Men  who  hav^e  no  opportunities  of  shewing  it  as  to 
things  in  this  life,  take  death  and  futurity  as  objects  on 
which  to  display  it.'  JOHNSON.  '  That  is  mighty  foolish 
affectation.  Fear  is  one  of  the  passions  of  human  nature, 
of  which  it  is  impossible  to  divest  it.  You  remember  that 
the  Emperour  Charles  V,  when  he  read  upon  the  tomb-stone 
of  a  Spanish  nobleman,  "  Here  lies  one  who  never  knew 
fear,"  wittily  said,  "  Then  he  never  snuffed  a  candle  with 
his  fingers."  ' 

He  talked  a  few  words  of  French''  to  the  General;  but 
finding  he  did  not  do  it  with  facility,  he  asked  for  pen,  ink, 
and  paper,  and  wrote  the  following  note : — 

'  y\ji  III  dans  la  geographie  de  Lucas  de  Linda  nn  Pater-noster 

his  interesting  report  says : — '  Religion  seems  to  sit  easy  upon  Paoli. 
and  notwithstanding  what  his  historian  Boswell  relates,  I  take  him  to 
be  very  tree  in  his  notions  that  way.  This  I  suspect  both  from  the 
strain  of  his  conversation,  and  from  what  I  have  learnt  of  his  conduct 
towards  the  clergy  and  monks.'  Fitzmaurice's  Shclbiir-nc,  ii.  158.  See 
/(«/,  April  14,  1775,  where  Johnson  said: — '  Sir,  there  is  a  great  cry 
about  infidelity ;  but  there  are  in  reality  very  few  infidels.'  Yet  not 
long  before  he  had  complained  of  an  '  inundation  of  impiety.'  Bos- 
well's  Hebrides,  Sept.  30,  1773. 

'  I  suppose  Johnson  said  atmosphere.  Croker.  In  Humphry 
Clinker,  in  the  Letter  of  June  2,  there  is,  however,  a  somewhat  similar 
use  of  the  word.  Lord  Bute  is  described  as  'the  Caledonian  luminary, 
that  lately  blazed  so  bright  in  our  hemisphere;  methinks,  at  present. 
it  glimmers  through  a  fog.'  A  star,  however,  unlike  a  cloud,  may  i)ass 
from  one  hemisphere  to  the  other. 

'  Sec  post,  under  Nov.  5,  1775.  Hannah  More,  writing  in  1782  {Me- 
moirs, i.  242),  says  : — '  Paoli  will  not  talk  in  English,  and  his  French  is 
mixed  with  Italian.     He  speaks  no  language  with  purity.' 

icrit 


94  Good  breeding  defined.  [a.d.  1769. 


ecrit  dans  unc  langnc  tout  a-fait  diffcrcntc  de  V Italietine,  et  dc  toutes 
autres  lesqucUes  se  derivent  du  Latin.  L'auteiir  Vappclk  linguam 
Corsica  rusticam  ;  elle  a  pciit-etre  passe  pen  a  pen ;  mais  elk  a  ccr- 
taincment  prcvalue  autrefois  dans  les  montagnes  et  dans  la  eampagne. 
Le  vicme  auteur  dit  la  mane  ehose  en  parlant  de  Sardaigne ;  qu'il y  a 
deux  langues  dans  Plsle,  une  des  villes,  r autre  de  la  eampagne.'' 

The  General  immediately  informed  him  that  the  lingua 
riistica  was  only  in  Sardinia. 

Dr.  Johnson  went  home  with  me,  and  drank  tea  till  late 
in  the  night.  He  said,  '  General  Paoli  had  the  loftiest  port 
of  any  man  he  had  ever  seen '.'  He  denied  that  military 
men  were  always  the  best  bred  men.  *  Perfect  good  breed- 
ing, he  observed,  consists  in  having  no  particular  mark  of  any 
profession,  but  a  general  elegance  of  manners ;  whereas,  in 
a  military  man,  you  can  commonly  distinguish  the  brand  of 
a  soldier,  riiovinie  d'cpcc' 

Dr.'Johnson  shunned  to-night  any  discussion  of  the  per- 
plexed question  of  fate  and  free  will,  which  I  attempted  to 
agitate.  '  Sir,  (said  he,)  we  knoiv  our  will  is  free,  and  tlicrcs 
an  end  on't ".' 

He  honoured  me  with  his  company  at  dinner  on  the  i6th 
of  October,  at  my  lodgings  in  Old  Bond -street,  with  Sir 
Joshua  Reynolds,  Mr.  Garrick,  Dr.  Goldsmith,  Mr.  Murphy, 
Mr.  Bickerstaff ',  and  Mr.  Thomas  Davies.     Garrick  played 

'  Horace  Walpole  writes  : — '  Paoli  had  as  much  ease  as  suited  a  pru- 
dence that  seemed  the  utmost  effort  of  a  wary  understanding,  and  was 
so  void  of  anything  remarkable  in  his  aspect,  that  being  asked  if  I 
knew  who  it  was,  I  judged  him  a  Scottish  officer  (for  he  was  sandy- 
complexioned  and  in  regimentals),  who  was  cautiously  awaiting  the 
moment  of  promotion.'     Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  George  III,  iii.  3S7. 

="  Boswell  introduced  this  subject  often.  See  post,  Oct.  26,  1769, 
April  15,  1778,  March  14,  1781,  and  June  23,  1784.  Like  Milton's  fallen 
angels,  he  '  found  no  end,  in  wand'ring  mazes  lost.'  Paradise  Lost, 
ii.  561. 

^  'To  this  wretched  being,  himself  by  his  own  misconduct  lashed 
out  of  human  society,  the  stage  was  indebted  for  several  very  pure 
and  pleasing  entertainments ;  among  them,  Lo7>e  in  a  Village,  The 
Maid  of  the  Mill!  Forster's  Goldsmith,  ii.  136.  'When,'  says  Mrs. 
Piozzi  {^Anec.  p.  168), '  Mr.  Bickerstaff's  flight  confirmed  the  repoit  of 

round 


Aetat.  60.]       Goldsmit/is  bloom-coloured  coat.  95 

round  him  with  a  fond  vivacity,  taking  hold  of  the  breasts 
of  his  coat,  and,  looking  up  in  his  face  with  a  lively  arch- 
ness, complimented  him  on  the  good  health  which  he  seemed 
then  to  enjoy ;  while  the  sage,  shaking  his  head,  beheld  him 
with  a  gentle  complacency.  One  of  the  company  not  being 
come  at  the  appointed  hour,  I  proposed,  as  usual  upon  such 
occasions,  to  order  dinner  to  be  served  ;  adding,  '  Ought  six 
people  to  be  kept  waiting  for  one  ?'  '  Why,  yes,  (answered 
Johnson,  with  a  delicate  humanity,)  if  the  one  will  suffer 
more  by  your  sitting  down,  than  the  six  will  do  by  wait- 
ing.' Goldsmith,  to  divert  the  tedious  minutes,  strutted 
about,  bragging  of  his  dress,  and  I  believe  was  seriously 
vain  of  it,  for  his  mind  was  wonderfully  prone  to  such 
impressions '.  '  Come,  come,  (said  Garrick,)  talk  no  more  of 
that.  You  are,  perhaps,  the  worst  —  eh,  eh  !' — Goldsmith 
was  eagerly  attempting  to  interrupt  him,  when  Garrick  went 
on,  laughing  ironically,  '  Nay,  you  will  always  look  like  a 
gentleman';  but  I  am  talking  of  being  well  or  ill  drcst.' 
'  Well,  let  me  tell  you,  (said  Goldsmith,)  when  my  tailor 
brought  home  my  bloom-coloured  coat,  he  said,  "  Sir,  I  have 
a  favour  to  beg  of  you.    When  any  body  asks  you  who  made 

his  guilt,  and  my  husband  said  in  answer  to  Johnson's  astonishment, 
that  he  had  long  been  a  suspected  man  :  "  By  those  who  look  close  to 
the  ground  dirt  will  be  seen,  Sir,  (was  his  lofty  reply;)  I  hope  I  see 
things  from  a  greater  distance."  '  In  the  Garrick  Corres.  (i.  473)  is  a 
piteous  letter  in  bad  French,  written  from  St.  Malo,  by  Bickerstaff  to 
Garrick,  endorsed  by  Garrick,  '  From  that  poor  wretch  Bickerstaff :  I 
could  not  answer  it.' 

'  Boswell,  only  a  couple  of  years  before  he  published  The  Life  of 
Johnson,  in  fact  while  he  was  writing  it,  had  written  to  Temple: — '  1 
was  xS\Q.  great  man  (as  we  used  to  say)  at  the  late  Drawing-room,  in  a 
suit  of  imperial  blue,  lined  with  rose-coloured  silk,  and  ornamented 
with  rich  gold-wrought  buttons.'     Letters  of  Bosivell,  p.  289. 

'  Miss  Reynolds,  in  her  Recollections  fCroker's  Boswell,  p.  831),  says, 
'  One  day  at  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds's  Goldsmith  was  relating  with  great 
indignation  an  insult  he  had  just  received  from  some  gentleman  he 
had  accidentally  met.  "  The  fellow,"  he  said,  "  took  me  for  a  tailor  .'" 
on  which  all  the  company  cither  laughed  aloud  or  showed  they  sup- 
pressed a  laugh.' 

your 


96  The  DuNciAD.  [a.d.  1769. 


your  clothes,  be  pleased  to  mention  John  Filby,  at  the  Har- 
row, in  Water -lane.'"  JOHNSON.  'Why,  Sir,  that  was  be- 
cause he  knew  the  strange  colour  would  attract  crowds  to 
gaze  at  it,  and  thus  they  might  hear  of  him,  and  see  how 
well  he  could  make  a  coat  even  of  so  absurd  a  colour'.' 

After  dinner  our  conversation  first  turned  upon  Pope. 
Johnson  said,  his  characters  of  men  were  admirably  drawn, 
those  of  women  not  so  welP.  He  repeated  to  us,  in  his 
forcible  melodious  manner,  the  concluding  lines  of  the  Dunci- 
ad\  While  he  was  talking  loudly  in  praise  of  those  lines, 
one  of  the  company*  ventured  to  say,  'Too  fine  for  such  a 

'  In   Prior's   Goldsmith,  ii.  232,  is  given   Filby's   Bill   for  a  suit  of 
clothes  sent  to  Goldsmith  this  very  day : — 
Oct.  16.—  ^    ^     ^ 

To  making  a  half-dress  suit  of  ratteen,  lined  with  satin     -  12  12     o 

To  a  pair  of  silk  stocking  breeches   -- 250 

To  & '^■Mx  ol  bloom-coloured  d,'\\Xo  ---------146 

Nothing  is  said  in  this  bill  of  the  colour  of  the  coat ;  it  is  the  breeches 
that  are  bloom-coloured.  The  tailor's  name  was  William,  not  John, 
Filby ;  ib.  i.  378.  Goldsmith  in  his  Life  of  Nash  had  said  :— '  Dress 
has  a  mechanical  influence  upon  the  mind,  and  we  naturally  are  awed 
into  respect  and  esteem  at  the  elegance  of  those  whom  even  our  rea- 
son would  teach  us  to  contemn.  He  seemed  early  sensible  of  human 
weakness  in  this  respect ,  he  brought  a  person  genteelly  dressed  to 
every  assembly.'     Cunningham's  Goldsmith's  Works,  iv.  46. 

^  'The  Characters  of  Men  and  Women  are  the  product  of  diligent 
speculation  upon  human  life ;  much  labour  has  been  bestowed  upon 

them,  and  Pope  very  seldom  laboured  in  vain The  Characters  of 

Men,  however,  are  written  with  more,  if  not  with  deeper  thought,  and 
exhibit  many  passages  exquisitely  beautiful. ...  In  the  women's  part 
are  some  defects.'    Johnson's  Works,  viii.  341. 

^  Mr.  Langton  informed  me  that  he  once  related  to  Johnson  (on  the 
authority  of  Spence),  that  Pope  himself  admired  those  lines  so  much 
that  when  he  repeated  them  his  voice  faltered  :  '  and  well  it  might. 
Sir,'  said  Johnson, '  for  they  are  noble  lines.'    J.  Boswell,  jun. 

*  We  have  here  an  instance  of  that  reserve  which  Boswell,  in  his 
Dedication  to  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  {a7ite,  i.  4),  says  that  he  has  prac- 
tised. In  one  particular  he  had  '  found  the  world  to  be  a  great  fool,' 
and, '  I  have  therefore,'  as  he  writes, '  in  this  work  been  more  reserved ;' 
yet  the  reserve  is  slight  enough.  Everyone  guesses  that  '  one  of  the 
company '  was  Boswell. 

poem  : — 


Aetat.  60.]  The  Mourning  Bride.  97 

poem  : — a  poem  on  what  ?'  JOHNSON,  (with  a  disdainful 
look,)  '  Why,  on  dunces.  It  was  worth  while  being  a  dunce 
then.  Ah,  Sir,  hadst  tJiou  lived  in  those  days !  It  is  not 
worth  while  being  a  dunce  now,  when  there  are  no  wits'.' 
Bickerstaff  observed,  as  a  peculiar  circumstance,  that  Pope's 
fame  was  higher  when  he  was  alive  than  it  was  then  ".  John- 
son said,  his  Pastorals  were  poor  things,  though  the  versi- 
fication was  fine\  He  told  us,  with  high  satisfaction,  the 
anecdote  of  Pope's  inquiring  who  was  the  authour  of  his 
London^  and  saying,  he  will  be  soon  dctcrrc*.  He  observed, 
that  in  Dryden's  poetry  there  were  passages  drawn  from  a 
profundity  which  Pope  could  never  reach  \  He  repeated 
some  fine  lines  on  love,  by  the  former,  (which  I  have  now 
forgotten  \)  and  gave  great  applause  to  the  character  of 
Zimri'.  Goldsmith  said,  that  Pope's  character  of  Addison' 
shewed  a  deep  knowledge  of  the  human  heart.  Johnson 
said,  that  the  description  of  the  temple,  in  The  Mourning 
Bride^,  was  the  finest  poetical  passage  he  had  ever  read; 

'  Yet  Johnson,  in  his  Lr/t'  of  Pope  {Works,  viii.  276),  seems  to  be 
much  of  Boswell's  opinion  ;  for  in  writing  of  the  Dunciad,  he  says : — 
*  The  subject  itself  had  nothing  generally  interesting,  for  whom  did  it 
concern  to  know  that  one  or  another  scribbler  was  a  dunce  ?' 
-  The  opposite  of  this  Johnson  maintained  on  April  29,  1778. 
'  '  It  is  surely  sufficient  for  an  author  of  sixteen  ...  to  have  obtained 
sufficient  power  of  language  and  skill  in  metre,  to  exhibit  a  series  of 
versification  which  had  in  English  poetry  no  precedent,  nor  has  since 
liad  an  imitation.'    Johnson's  Works,  viii.  326. 
^  See  ante,  i.  149. 

''  '  If  the  flights  of  Dryden  are  higher.  Pope  continues  longer  on  the 
wing.  . . .  Dryden  is  read  with  frequent  astonishment,  and  Pope  with 
perpetual  delight.'     Johnson's  JVorks,  viii.  325. 

"  Probably,  says  Mr.  Crokcr,  those  quoted  by  Johnson  in  T/w  Life 
of  Dryden.     Id.  vii.  339. 

'  The  Duke  of  Buckingham  in  Dryden's  yM^a/^w  and  Ae/u'/op/tel. 
*  Prologue  to  the  Satires,  1.  193. 

'  Almeria. — '  It  was  a  fancy'd  noise ;  for  all  is  hush'd. 
Leonora. — It  bore  the  accent  of  a  human  voice. 
Almeria. — It  was  thy  fear,  or  else  some  transient  wind 
Whistling  thro'  hcHows  of  this  vaulted  aisle; 
We'll  listen — 
II.— 7  he 


98  Shakspeare  and  Congreve.  [a.d.  1769. 

he  recollected  none  in  Shakspeare  equal  to  it.  '  But,  (said 
Garrick,  all  alarmed  for  the  '  God  of  his  idolatry  V)  we  know 
not  the  extent  and  variety  of  his  powers.  We  are  to  sup- 
pose there  are  such  passages  in  his  works.  Shakspeare  must 
not  suffer  from  the  badness  of  our  memories.'  Johnson, 
diverted  by  this  enthusiastick  jealousy,  went  on  with  greater 
ardour:  'No,  Sir;  Congreve  has  nature;'  (smiling  on  the 
tragick  eagerness  of  Garrick  ;)  but  composing  himself,  he 
added,  '  Sir,  this  is  not  comparing  Congreve  on  the  whole, 
with  Shakspeare  on  the  whole ;  but  only  maintaining  that 
Congreve  has  one  finer  passage  than  any  that  can  be  found 
in  Shakspeare.  Sir,  a  man  may  have  no  more  than  ten 
guineas  in  the  world,  but  he  may  have  those  ten  guineas 
in  one  piece ;  and  so  may  have  a  finer  piece  than  a  man 
who  has  ten  thousand  pounds :  but  then  he  has  only  one  ten- 
guinea  piece.     What  I  mean  is,  that  you  can  shew  me  no 

Leonora. — Hark ! 

Almeria. — No,  all  is  hush'd  and  still  as  death, — 'Tis  dreadful ! 

How  reverend  is  the  face  of  this  tall  pile, 

Whose  ancient  pillars  rear  their  marble  heads, 

To  bear  aloft  its  arch'd  and  ponderous  roof. 

By  its  own  weight  made  stedfast  and  immoveable, 

Looking  tranquillity !     It  strikes  an  awe 

And  terror  on  my  aching  sight ;  the  tombs 

And  monumental  caves  of  death  look  cold, 

And  shoot  a  chillness  to  my  trembling  heart. 

Give  me  thy  hand,  and  let  me  hear  thy  voice ; 

Nay,  quickly  speak  to  me,  and  let  me  hear 

Thy  voice — my  ov^^n  affrights  me  with  its  echoes.' 

Act  ii.  sc.  I. 
'  '  Swear  by  thy  gracious  self, 

Which  is  the  god  of  my  idolatry.' 

Ro>neo  mid  Juliet,  act  ii.  sc.  2. 
He  was  a  God  with  whom  he  ventured  to  take  great  liberties.  Thus 
on  Jan.  10,  1776,  he  wrote  : — '  I  have  ventured  to  produce  Hairnet  with 
alterations.  It  was  the  most  imprudent  thing  I  ever  did  in  all  my  life ; 
but  I  had  sworn  I  would  not  leave  the  stage  till  I  had  rescued  that 
noble  play  from  all  the  rubbish  of  the  fifth  act.  I  have  brought  it 
forth  without  the  grave-digger's  trick  and  the  fencing  match.  The 
alterations  were  received  with  general  approbation  beyond  my  most 
warm  expectations.'     Garrick  Corres.  ii.  126.     See  ante,  ii.  90,  note  2. 

passage 


Aetat.  60.]  Skakspeare  and  Congreve,  99 

passage  where  there  is  simply  a  description  of  material  ob- 
jects, without  any  intermixture  of  moral  notions,  which  pro- 
duces such  an  effect '.'     Mr.  Murphy  mentioned  Shakspeare's 

'  This  comparison  between  Shakespeare  and  Congreve  is  mentioned 
perhaps  oftener  than  any  passage  in  Boswell.  Almost  as  often  as  it  is 
mentioned,  it  may  be  seen  that  Johnson's  real  opinion  is  misrepresented 
or  misunderstood.  A  few  passages  from  his  writings  will  shew  how 
he  regarded  the  two  men.  In  the  Life  of  Congrer/e  {Works, \\n.  31) 
he  repeats  what  he  says  here  : — '  If  I  were  required  to  select  from  the 
whole  mass  of  English  poetry  the  most  poetical  paragraph,  I  know 
not  what  I  could  prefer  to  an  exclamation  in  T/ic  Mourning  Bride' 
Yet  in  writing  of  the  same  play,  he  says: — '  In  this  play  there  is  more 
bustle  than  sentiment ;  the  plot  is  busy  and  intricate,  and  the  events 
take  hold  on  the  attention ;  but,  except  a  very  few  passages,  we  are 
rather  amused  with  noise  and  perplexed  with  stratagem,  than  enter- 
tained with  any  true  delineation  of  natural  characters.'  lb.  p.  26.  In 
the  preface  to  his  Shakespeare,  published  four  years  before  this  conver- 
sation, he  almost  answered  Garrick  by  anticipation.  '  It  was  said  of 
Euripides  that  every  verse  was  a  precept ;  and  it  may  be  said  of 
Shakespeare,  that  from  his  works  may  be  collected  a  system  of  civil 
and  economical  prudence.  Yet  his  real  power  is  not  shown  in  the 
splendour  of  particular  passages,  but  by  the  progress  of  his  fable,  and 
the  tenour  of  his  dialogue,  and  he  that  tries  to  recommend  him  by  se- 
lect quotations,  will  succeed  like  the  pedant  in  Hierocles,  who,  when 
he  offered  his  house  to  sale,  carried  a  brick  in  his  pocket  as  a  speci- 
men.' lb.  v.  106.  Ignorant,  indeed,  is  he  who  thinks  that  Johnson 
was  insensible  to  Shakespeare's  '  transcendent  and  unbounded  genius,' 
to  use  the  words  that  he  himself  applied  to  him.  The  Rambler,  No. 
156.  '  It  may  be  doubtful,'  he  writes, '  whether  from  all  his  successors 
more  maxims  of  theoretical  knowledge,  or  more  rules  of  practical  pru- 
dence, can  be  collected  than  he  alone  has  given  to  his  country.'  Works, 
v.  131.  'He  that  has  read  Shakespeare  v/ith  attention  will,  perhaps, 
find  little  new  in  the  crowded  world.'  lb.  p.  434.  '  Let  him  that  is 
yet  unacquainted  with  the  povi^ers  of  Shakespeare,  and  who  desires  to 
feel  the  highest  pleasure  that  the  drama  can  give,  read  every  play, 
from  the  first  scene  to  the  last,  with  utter  negligence  of  all  his  com- 
mentators. When  his  fancy  is  once  on  the  wing,  let  it  not  stoop  at 
correction  or  explanation.'  /(^.  p.  152.  And  lastly  he  quotes  Drj'den's 
words  [from  Dryden's  Essay  of  Dramatick  Pocsie,  edit,  of  1701,  i.  19] 
*  that  Shakespeare  was  the  man  who,  of  all  modern  and  perhaps  an- 
cient poets,  had  the  largest  and  most  comprehensive  soul.'  lb.  p.  153. 
Mrs.  Piozzi  records  (Anec.  p.  58),  that  she  '  forced  Johnson  one  day 
in  a  similar  humour  [to  that  in  which  he  had  praised  Congreve]  to 

description 


lOO  Thomas  Sheridan.  [a.d.  1769, 

description  of  the  night  before  the  battle  of  Agin- 
court ' ;  but  it  was  observed,  it  had  men  in  it.  Mr.  Davies 
suggested  the  speech  of  JuHet,  in  which  she  figures  herself 
awaking  in  the  tomb  of  her  ancestors'.  Some  one  men- 
tioned the  description  of  Dover  Cliff".  JOHNSON.  'No, 
Sir;  it  should  be  all  precipice,  —  all  vacuum.  The  crows 
impede  your  fall.  The  diminished  appearance  of  the  boats, 
and  other  circumstances,  are  all  very  good  description  ;  but 
do  not  impress  the  mind  at  once  with  the  horrible  idea  of 
immense  height.  The  impression  is  divided  ;  you  pass  on 
by  computation,  from  one  stage  of  the  tremendous  space 
to  another.  Had  the  girl  in  The  JHourning  Bride  said,  she 
could  not  cast  her  shoe  to  the  top  of  one  of  the  pillars  in  the 
temple,  it  would  not  have  aided  the  idea,  but  weakened  it.' 

Talking  of  a  Barrister  who  had  a  bad  utterance,  some  one, 
(to  rouse  Johnson,)  wickedly  said,  that  he  was  unfortunate 
in  not  having  been  taught  oratory  by  Sheridan  \  JOHN- 
SON. '  Nay,  Sir,  if  he  had  been  taught  by  Sheridan,  he 
would  have  cleared  the  room.'  Garrick.  '  Sheridan  has 
too  much  vanity  to  be  a  good  man.'  We  shall  now  see  John- 
son's mode  of  defending  a  man  ;  taking  him  into  his  own 
hands,  and  discriminating.  JOHNSON.  '  No,  Sir.  There  is, 
to  be  sure,  in  Sheridan,  something  to  reprehend,  and  every 
thing  to  laugh  at ;  but,  Sir,  he  is  not  a  bad  man.  No,  Sir ; 
were  mankind  to  be  divided  into  good  and  bad,  he  would 
stand  considerably  within  the  ranks  of  good.  And,  Sir,  it 
must  be  allowed  that  Sheridan  excels  in  plain  declamation, 
though  he  can  exhibit  no  character.' 

I  should,  perhaps,  have  suppressed  this  disquisition 
concerning  a  person  of  whose  merit  and  worth  I  think  with 
respect,  had   he   not   attacked   Johnson   so  outrageously  in 

prefer  Young's  description  of  night  to  those  of  Shakespeare  and  Dry- 
den.'  He  ended  however  by  saying : — '  Young  froths  and  foams  and 
bubbles  sometimes  very  vigorously ;  but  we  must  not  compare  the 
noise  made  by  your  tea-kettle  here  with  the  roaring  of  the  ocean.' 
See  dX's.o  post,  ii.  iir. 

^  Henry  V,  act  iv.  Prologue.  "  Romeo  and  Juliet,  act  iv.  so.  3. 

^  King  Lear,  act  iv.  sc.  6.  "  See  ante,  July  26,  1763. 

his 


Aetat.  60.]  Voltaire  and  Mrs.  Montagu.  loi 

his  Life  of  Szvift,  and,  at  the  same  time,  treated  us,  his 
admirers,  as  a  set  of  pigmies'.  He  who  has  provoked  the 
lash  of  wit,  cannot  complain  that  he  smarts  from  it. 

Mrs.  Montagu,  a  lady  distinguished  for  having  written  an 
Essay  on  Shakspcare,  being  mentioned ;  REYNOLDS.  '  I 
think  that  essay  does  her  honour.'  JOHNSON.  'Yes,  Sir; 
it  does  her  honour,  but  it  would  do  nobody  else  honour. 
I  have,  indeed,  not  read  it  all.  But  when  I  take  up  the 
end  of  a  web,  and  find  it  packthread,  I  do  not  expect,  by 
looking  further,  to  find  embroidery.  Sir,  I  will  venture  to 
say,  there  is  not  one  sentence  of  true  criticism  in  her 
book.'  Garrick.  '  But,  Sir,  surely  it  shews  how  much  Vol- 
taire has  mistaken  Shakspeare,  which  nobody  else  has  done'.' 
Johnson.  '  Sir,  nobody  else  has  thought  it  worth  while. 
And  what  merit  is  there  in  that  ?  You  may  as  well  praise 
a  school-master  for  whipping  a  boy  who  has  construed  ill. 
No,  Sir,  there  is  no  real  criticism  in  it :  none  shewing  the 
beauty  of  thought,  as  formed  on  the  workings  of  the  human 
heart.' 

The   admirers    of   this    Essay'   may  be    offended   at   the 

'  See  ante,  i.  450. 

-  In  spite  of  the  gross  nonsense  that  Voltaire  has  written  about 
Shakespeare,  yet  it  was  with  justice  that  in  a  letter  to  Horace  Wal- 
pole,  (dated  July  15,1768,)  he  said: — 'Je  suis  le  premier  qui  ait  fait 

connaitre  Shakespeare  aux  Frangais Je  peux  vous  assurer  qu'avant 

moi  personne  en  France  ne  connaissait  la  poesie  anglaise.'  Voltaire's 
Works,  liv.  5 1 3. 

^  '  Of  whom  I  acknowledge  myself  to  be  one,  considering  it  as  a 
piece  of  the  secondary  or  comparative  species  of  criticism  ;  and  not 
of  that  profound  species  which  alone  Dr.  Johnson  would  allow  to  be 
"  real  criticism."  It  is,  besides,  clearly  and  elegantly  expressed,  and 
has  done  effectually  what  it  professed  to  do,  namely,  vindicated  Shake- 
speare from  the  misrepresentations  of  Voltaire  ;  and  considering  how 
many  young  people  were  misled  by  his  witty,  though  false  observa- 
tions, Mrs.  Montagu's  Essay  was  of  service  to  Shakespeare  with  a  cer- 
tain class  of  readers,  and  is,  therefore,  entitled  to  prai.se.  Johnson,  I 
am  assured,  allowed  the  merit  which  I  have  stated,  saying,  (with  refer- 
ence to  Voltaire,)  "  it  is  conclusive  ad  /nvuinciii."  '  BoswEi.L.  That 
this  dull  essay,  which  would  not  do  credit  to  a  clever  school-girl  of 
seventeen,  should  have  had  a  fame,  of  which  the  echoes  have  not  yet 

slighting 


I02  Mrs.  Montagtis  Essay.  [a.d.  1769. 

slighting  manner  in  which  Johnson  spoke  of  it ;  but  let  it  be 
remembered,  that  he  gave  his  honest  opinion  unbiassed  by 
any  prejudice,  or  any  proud  jealousy  of  a  woman  intruding 
herself  into  the  chair  of  criticism;  for  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds 
has  told  me,  that  when  the  Essay  first  came  out,  and  it  was 
not  known  who  had  written  it,  Johnson  wondered  how  Sir 
Joshua  could  like  it '.  At  this  time  Sir  Joshua  himself  had 
received  no  information  concerning  the  authour,  except  being 
assured  by  one  of  our  most  eminent  literati,  that  it  was  clear 


quite  died  out,  can  only  be  fully  explained  by  Mrs.  Montagu's  great 
wealth  and  position  in  society.  Contemptible  as  was  her  essay,  yet 
a  saying  of  hers  about  Voltaire  was  clever.  '  He  sent  to  the  Acad- 
emy an  invective  [against  Shakespeare]  that  bears  all  the  marks  of 
passionate  dotage.  Mrs.  Montagu  happened  to  be  present  when  it 
was  read.  Suard,  one  of  their  writers,  said  to  her,  "  Je  crois,  Madame, 
que  vous  etes  un  peu  fache  (sic)  de  ce  que  vous  venez  d'entendre." 
She  replied,  "  Moi,  Monsieur  !  point  du  tout !  Je  ne  suis  pas  amie  de 
M.  Voltaire."  '  Walpole's  Letters,  vi.  394.  Her  own  Letters  are  very 
pompous  and  very  poor,  and  her  wit  would  not  seem  to  have  flashed 
often;  for  Miss  Burney  wrote  of  her: — 'She  reasons  well,  and  ha- 
rangues well,  but  wit  she  has  none.'  Mme.  D'Arblay's  Diary,  \.  335. 
Yet  in  this  same  Diary  (i.  112)  we  find  evidence  of  the  absurdly  high 
estimate  that  was  commonly  formed  of  her.  '  Mrs.  Thrale  asked  me 
if  I  did  not  want  to  see  Mrs.  Montagu.  I  truly  said,  I  should  be  the 
most  insensible  of  all  animals  not  to  like  to  see  our  sex's  glory.'  That 
she  was  a  very  extraordinary  woman  we  have  Johnson's  word  for  it. 
(See  post.  May  15,  1784.)  It  is  impossible,  however,  to  discover  any 
thing  that  rises  above  commonplace  in  any  thing  that  she  wrote,  and, 
so  far  as  I  know,  that  she  said,  with  the  exception  of  her  one  saying 
about  Voltaire.  Johnson  himself,  in  one  of  his  letters  to  Mrs.  Thrale, 
has  a  laugh  at  her.  He  had  mentioned  Shakespeare,  nature  and 
friendship,  and  continues  : — '  Now,  of  whom  shall  I  proceed  to  speak  } 
Of  whom  but  Mrs.  Montagu .''  Having  mentioned  Shakespeare  and 
Nature,  does  not  the  name  of  Montagu  force  itself  upon  me  1  Such 
were  the  transitions  of  the  ancients,  which  now  seem  abrupt,  because 
the  intermediate  idea  is  lost  to  modern  understandings.  I  wish  her 
name  had  connected  itself  with  friendship ;  but,  ah  Colin,  thy  hopes 
are  in  vain.'     Piozzi  Letters,  \\.\o\.     See /d;^V,  April  7,  1778. 

'  '  Reynolds  is  fond  of  her  book,  and  I  wonder  at  it ;  for  neither  I, 
nor  Beauclerc,  nor  Mrs.  Thrale,  could  get  through  it.'  Boswell's  //t'(5- 
r/rt'it'i-,  Sept.  23,  1773. 

its 


Aetat.  60.]  Lord  Kanies  and  Bur ke.  103 

its  authour  did  not  know  the  Greek  tragedies  in  the  original. 
One  day  at  Sir  Joshua's  table,  when  it  was  related  that  Mrs. 
Montagu,  in  an  excess  of  compliment  to  the  authour  of  a 
modern  tragedy,  had  exclaimed,  *  I  tremble  for  Shakspearc ;' 

Johnson  said,  *  When  Shakspeare  has  got for  his  rival, 

and  Mrs.  Montagu  for  his  defender,  he  is  in  a  poor  state 
indeed.' 

Johnson  proceeded:  'The  Scotchman'  has  taken  the  right 
method  in  his  Elements  of  Criticisiii.  I  do  not  mean  that 
he  has  taught  us  any  thing ;  but  he  has  told  us  old  things 
in  a  new  way.'  Murphy.  '  He  seems  to  have  read  a  great 
deal  of  French  criticism,  and  wants  to  make  it  his  own  ;  as 
if  he  had  been  for  years  anatomising  the  heart  of  man,  and 
peeping  into  every  cranny  of  it.'  GOLDSMITH.  *  It  is  easier 
to  write  that  book,  than  to  read  it'.'  JOHNSON.  'We  have 
an  example  of  true  criticism  in  Burke's  Essay  on  the  Subliiiie 
and  Beautiful ;  and,  if  I  recollect,  there  is  also  Du  Bos^  and 
Bouhours*,  who  shews  all  beauty  to  depend  on  truth.    There 

'  Lord  Kames  is  '  the  Scotchman.'     See  ante,  i.455. 

"^  '  When  Charles  Townshend  read  some  of  Lord  Karnes's  Elements 
of  Criticistn,  he  said  : — "  This  is  the  work  of  a  dull  man  grown  whim- 
sical " — a  most  characteristical  account  of  Lord  Kames  as  a  writer.' 
Boswelliana,  p.  278.  Hume  wrote  of  it : — '  Some  parts  of  the  work  are 
ingenious  and  curious  ;  but  it  is  too  abstruse  and  crabbed  ever  to  take 
with  the  public'  J.  H.  Burton's  Hume,  ii.  131.  '  Kames,'  he  says, '  had 
much  provoked  Voltaire,  who  never  forgives,  and  never  thinks  any 
enemy  below  his  notice.'  lb.  p.  195.  Voltaire  ( Works,  xliii.  302)  thus 
ridicules  his  book : — '  II  nous  prouve  d'abord  que  nous  avons  cinq 
sens,  et  que  nous  sentons  moins  I'impression  douce  faite  sur  nos  yeux 
et  sur  nos  oreilles  par  les  couleurs  et  par  les  sons  que  nous  ne  sentons 
un  grand  coup  sur  la  jambe  ou  sur  la  tete.' 

'  L'Abbe  Dubos,  1670-1742.  '  Tous  les  artistes  lisent  avec  fruit  ses 
RiflexioJis  sur  la  poesie,  la  peinture,  et  la  musiquc.  C'est  le  livre  le 
plus  utile  qu'on  ait  jamais  ecrit  sur  ces  matieres  chez  aucunc  des  na- 
tions de  I'Europe.'     Voltaire's  Steele  de  Louis  XIV,  i.  81. 

*  Bouhours,  1 628-1 702.  Voltaire,  writing  of  Bouhours'  Maniere 
de  bzen  penser  sur  les  ouvrages  d' esprit,  says  that  he  teaches  young 
people  'a  eviter  I'enflure,  I'obscurite,  le  recherche,  et  le  faux.' 
lb.  p.  54.  Johnson,  perhaps,  knew  him,  through  The  Spectator,  No. 
62,  where  it  is  said  that  he  has  shown  '  that  it  is  impossible  for  any 

is 


I04  Petitioning.  [a.d.  1769. 

is  no  great  merit  in  telling  how  many  plays  have  ghosts  in 
them,  and  how  this  Ghost  is  better  than  that.  You  must 
shew  how  terrour  is  impressed  on  the  human  heart.  In 
the  description  of  night  in  Macbeth  \  the  beetle  and  the 
bat  detract  from  the  general  idea  of  darkness, — inspissated 
gloom.' 

Politicks  being  mentioned,  he  said, '  This  petitioning  is  a 
new  mode  of  distressing  government,  and  a  mighty  easy 
one.  I  will  undertake  to  get  petitions  either  against  quar- 
ter-guineas or  half-guineas,  with  the  help  of  a  little  hot 
wine.  There  must  be  no  yielding  to  encourage  this.  The 
object  is  not  important  enough.  We  are  not  to  blow  up 
half  a  dozen  palaces,  because  one  cottage  is  burning'.' 

thought  to  be  beautiful  which  is  not  just,  .  .  .  that  the  basis  of  all 
wit  is  truth.' 

'  Macbeth,  act  iii.  sc.  2. 

'  In  The  False  Alarm,  that  was  published  less  than  three  months  after 
this  conversation,  Johnson  describes  how  petitions  were  got.  'The 
progress  of  a  petition  is  well  known.  An  ejected  placeman  goes  down 
to  his  county  or  his  borough,  tells  his  friends  of  his  inability  to  serve 
them,  and  his  constituents  of  the  corruption  of  the  Government.  His 
friends  readily  understand  that  he  who  can  get  nothing  will  have 
nothing  to  give.  They  agree  to  proclaim  a  meeting ;  meat  and  drink 
are  plentifully  provided,  a  crowd  is  easily  brought  together,  and  those 
who  think  that  they  know  the  reason  of  their  meeting,  undertake  to 
tell  those  who  know  it  not ;  ale  and  clamour  unite  their  powers.  . .  . 
The  petition  is  read,  and  universally  approved.  Those  who  are  sober 
enough  to  write,  add  their  names,  and  the  rest  would  sign  it  if  they 
could.'  Works,  v\.  172.  Yet,  when  the  petitions  for  Dr.  Dodd's  life 
were  rejected,  Johnson  said  : — '  Surely  the  voice  of  the  public  when  it 
calls  so  loudly,  and  calls  only  for  mercy,  ought  to  be  heard.'  Post, 
June  28,  1777.  Horace  Walpole,  writing  of  the  numerous  petitions 
presented  to  the  King  this  year  (1769),  blames  'an  example  so  incon- 
sistent with  the  principles  of  liberty,  as  appealing  to  the  Crown  against 
the  House  of  Commons.'  Some  of  them  prayed  for  a  dissolution  of 
Parliament.  Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  George  III,  iii.  382,  390.  Two 
years  earlier  Lord  Shelburne,  when  Secretary  of  State,  had  found 
among  the  subscribers  to  a  petition  for  his  impeachment,  a  friend  of 
his,  a  London  alderman.  '  Oh  !  aye,'  said  the  alderman  when  asked 
for  an  explanation,  '  I  did  sign  a  petition  at  the  Royal  E.xchange, 
which  they  told  me  was  for  the  impeachment  of  a  Minister;  I  always 

The 


Aetat.  60.]        Ig7ioraiice  in  men  of  eminence.  105 

The  conversation  then  took  another  turn.  JOHNSON.  *  It 
is  amazing  what  ignorance  of  certain  points  one  sometimes 
finds  in  men  of  eminence.  A  wit  about  town,  who  wrote 
Latin  bawdy  verses,  asked  me,  how  it  happened  that  Eng- 
land and  Scotland,  which  were  once  two  kingdoms,  were  now 
one : — and  Sir  Fletcher  Norton '  did  not  seem  to  know  that 
there  were  such  pubhcations  as  the  Reviews.' 

'The  Ballad  of  Hardyknute^  has  no  great  merit,  if  it  be 
really  ancient.  People  talk  of  nature.  But  mere  obvious 
nature  may  be  exhibited  with  very  little  power  of  mind.' 

On  Thursday,  October  19,  I  passed  the  evening  with  him 
at  his  house.  He  advised  me  to  complete  a  Dictionary  of 
words  peculiar  to  Scotland,  of  which  I  shewed  him  a  speci- 
men. '  Sir,  (said  he,)  Ray  has  made  a  collection  of  north- 
country  words  ^  By  collecting  those  of  your  country,  you 
will  do  a  useful  thing  towards  the  history  of  the  language.' 
He  bade  me  also  go  on  with  collections  which  I  was  mak- 
ing upon  the  antiquities  of  Scotland.  '  Make  a  large  book ; 
a  folio.'  BOSWELL.  'But  of  what  use  will  it  be,  Sir?' 
Johnson.  *  Never  mind  the  use ;  do  it.' 

I  complained  that  he  had  not  mentioned  Garrick  in  his 
Preface  to  Shakspeare* ;  and  asked  him  if  he  did  not  admire 
him.  Johnson.  'Yes,  as  "a  poor  player,  who  frets  and 
struts  his  hour  upon  the  stage  ;" — as  a  shadow'.'     BosWELL. 

sign  a  petition  to  impeach  a  Minister,  and  1  recollect  that  as  soon  as 
I  had  subscribed  it,  twenty  more  put  their  names  to  it.'  Pari.  Hist. 
XXXV.  167. 

'  See /tij/,  under  March  24,  1776. 

-  Mr.  Robert  Chambers  says  that  the  authour  of  the  ballad  was  Eliz- 
abeth Halivct,  wife  of  Sir  Henry  AVardlaw.  She  died  about  1 727.  '  The 
ballad  of  Hardyknutc  was  the  first  poem  I  ever  read,  and  it  will  be  the 
last  I  shall  forget.'     Sir  Walter  Scott.     Croker's  Bosivcll,  p.  205. 

'  John  Ray  published,  in  1674,  A  Collection  of  English  Words,  &c., 
and  A  Collection  of  English  Proverbs.  In  1768  the  two  were  published 
in  one  volume. 

*  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Sept.  23,  1773. 

'  '  Life's  but  a  walking  shadow,  a  poor  player 

That  struts  and  frets  his  hour  upon  the  stage.' 

Macbeth,  act  v.  sc.  5. 
'But 


io6  Johnson  and  Gar  rick.  [a.d.  1769. 

'But  has  he  not  brought  Shakspeare  into  notice'?'  JOHN- 
SON. '  Sir,  to  allow  that,  would  be  to  lampoon  the  age. 
Many  of  Shakspeare's  plays  are  the  worse  for  being  acted  : 
Macbeth,  for  instance'.'  BOSWELL.  'What,  Sir,  is  nothing 
gained  by  decoration  and  action  ?  Indeed,  I  do  wish  that 
you  had  mentioned  Garrick.'  JOHNSON.  '  My  dear  Sir,  had 
I  mentioned  him,  I  must  have  mentioned  many  more  :  Mrs. 
Pritchard,  Mrs.  Gibber, — nay,  and  Mr.  Gibber  too  ;  he  too 
altered  Shakspeare.'  Boswell.  '  You  have  read  his  apol- 
ogy, Sir?'  Johnson.  'Yes,  it  is  very  entertaining.  But  as 
for  Gibber  himself,  taking  from  his  conversation  all  that  he 
ought  not  to  have  said  \  he  was  a  poor  creature.  I  remem- 
ber when  he  brought  me  one  of  his  Odes  to  have  my  opin- 
ion of  it*;  I  could  not  bear  such  nonsense,  and  would  not 
let  him  read  it  to  the  end  ;  so  little  respect  had  I  for  that 
great  viaii !  (laughing.)  Yet  I  remember  Richardson  won- 
dering that  I  could  treat  him  with  familiarity*.' 

I   mentioned  to  him  that  I  had  seen  the  execution   of 

'  In  the  Garrick  Corres.  i.  385,  there  is  a  letter  from  Mrs.  Montagu 
to  Garrick,  which  shows  the  ridiculous  way  in  which  Shakespeare  was 
often  patronised  last  century,  and  '  brought  into  notice.'  She  says  : — 
'  Mrs.  Montagu  is  a  little  jealous  for  poor  Shakespeare,  for  if  Mr.  Gar- 
rick often  acts  Kitely,  Ben  Jonson  will  eclipse  his  fame.' 

'^  '  Familiar  comedy  is  often  more  powerful  on  the  theatre  than  in 
the  page;  imperial  tragedy  is  always  less.'  Johnson's  Works,  v.  122. 
See  also  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  15  and  16,  1773,  where  Johnson  'dis- 
played another  of  his  heterodox  opinions — a  contempt  of  tragick  act- 
ing.' Murphy  {Life,  p.  145)  thus  writes  of  Johnson's  slighting  Garrick 
and  the  stage  : — '  The  fact  was,  Johnson  could  not  see  the  passions  as 
they  rose  and  chased  one  another  in  the  varied  features  of  that  ex- 
pressive face ;  and  by  his  own  manner  of  reciting  verses,  which  was 
wonderfully  impressive,  he  plainly  showed  that  he  thought  there  was 
too  much  of  artificial  tone  and  measured  cadence  in  the  declamation 
of  the  theatre.'  Reynolds  said  of  Johnson's  recitation,  that '  it  had  no 
more  tone  than  it  should  have.'  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  26,  1773. 
Ste  post,  April  3,  1773. 

^  See  post,  April  6,  1775,  where  Johnson,  speaking  of  Gibber's  'tal- 
ents of  conversation,'  said  :— '  He  had  but  half  to  furnish  ;  for  one  half 
of  what  he  said  was  oaths.' 

*  See  ante,]\xnQ  13,  1763.  "  StQpost,  Sept.  21,  1777. 

several 


Aetat.  GO.]  Boswell  at  Tybiim.  107 

several  convicts  at  Tyburn ',  two  days  before,  and  that  none 
of  them  seemed  to  be  under  any  concern.  JOHNSON.  '  Most 
of  them.  Sir,  have  never  thought  at  alL'  BosWELL.  '  But 
is  not  the  fear  of  death  natural  to  man  ?'  JOHNSON.  '  So 
much  so,  Sir,  that  the  whole  of  life  is  but  keeping  away  the 
thoughts  of  it'.'  He  then,  in  a  low  and  earnest  tone,  talked 
of  his  meditating  upon  the  aweful  hour  of  his  own  dissolu- 
tion, and  in  what  manner  he  should  conduct  himself  upon 
that  occasion  :  '  I  know  not,  (said  he,)  whether  I  should 
wish  to  have  a  friend  by  me,  or  have  it  all  between  GOD 
and  myself.' 

'  On  Oct.  18,  one  day,  not  two  days  before,  four  men  were  hanged 
at  Tyburn  for  robbery  on  the  highway,  one  for  steaHng  money  and 
linen,  and  one  for  forgery.  Gent.  Mag.  xxxix.  508.  Boswell,  in  The 
Hypochoiidriack,  No.  68  {London  Mag.  for  1783,  p.  203),  republishes  a 
letter  which  he  had  written  on  April  25,  1768,  to  the  Public  Advertiser, 
after  he  had  witnessed  the  execution  of  an  attorney  named  Gibbon, 
and  a  youthful  highwayman.  He  says  : — '  I  must  confess  that  I  my- 
self am  never  absent  from  a  public  execution. . . .  When  I  first  attended 
them,  I  was  shocked  to  the  greatest  degree.  I  was  in  a  manner  con- 
vulsed with  pity  and  terror,  and  for  several  days,  but  especially  nights 
after,  I  was  in  a  very  dismal  situation.  Still,  however,  I  persisted  in 
attending  them,  and  by  degrees  my  sensibility  abated,  so  that  I  can 
now  see  one  with  great  composure.  I  can  account  for  this  curiosity 
in  a  philosophical  manner,  when  I  consider  that  death  is  the  most 
awful  object  before  every  man,  whoever  directs  his  thoughts  seriously 
towards  futurity.  Therefore  it  is  that  I  feel  an  irresistible  impulse  to 
be  present  at  every  execution,  as  I  there  behold  the  various  effects  of 
the  near  approach  of  death.'  He  maintains  'that  the  curiosity  which 
impels  people  to  be  present  at  such  affecting  scenes,  is  certainly  a 
proof  of  sensibility,  not  of  callousness.  For,  it  is  obserxxd,  that  the 
greatest  proportion  of  the  spectators  is  composed  of  women.'  See 
post,  June  23,  1784. 

-  Of  Johnson,  perhaps,  might  almost  be  said  what  he  said  of  Swift 
(  Works,  viii.  207) : — '  The  thoughts  of  death  rushed  upon  him  at  this 
time  with  such  incessant  importunity  that  they  took  possession  of  his 
mind,  when  he  first  waked,  for  many  hours  together.'  Writing  to  Mrs. 
Thrale  from  Lichfield  on  Oct.  27,  1781,  he  says  : — '  All  here  is  gloomy; 
a  faint  struggle  with  the  tediousncss  of  time,  a  doleful  confession  of 
present  misery,  and  the  approach  seen  and  felt  of  what  is  most  dreaded 
and  most  shunned.     But  such  is  the  lot  of  man.'    Piozzi Letters,  ii.  209. 

Talkin<r 


1 08  Sympathetic  feelings.  [a.d.  1769. 

Talking  of  our  feeling  for  the  distresses  of  others  ; — JOHN- 
SON. '  Why,  Sir,  there  is  much  noise  made  about  it,  but  it 
is  greatly  exaggerated.  No,  Sir,  we  have  a  certain  degree  of 
feeling  to  prompt  us  to  do  good  :  more  than  that.  Provi- 
dence does  not  intend.  It  would  be  misery  to  no  purpose'.' 
BOSWELL.  '  But  suppose  now,  Sir,  that  one  of  your  inti- 
mate friends  were  apprehended  for  an  offence  for  which  he 
might  be  hanged.'  JOHNSON.  '  I  should  do  what  I  could 
to  bail  him,  and  give  him  any  other  assistance  ;  but  if  he 
were  once  fairly  hanged,  I  should  not  suffer.'  BosWELL. 
'Would  you  eat  your  dinner  that  day.  Sir?'  Johnson. 
'  Yes,  Sir ;  and  eat  it  as  if  he  were  eating  it  with  me.  Why, 
there's  Baretti,  who  is  to  be  tried  for  his  life  to-morrow, 
friends  have  risen  up  for  him  on  every  side  ;  yet  if  he  should 
be  hanged,  none  of  them  will  eat  a  slice  of  plumb-pudding 
the  less.  Sir,  that  sympathetic  feeling  goes  a  very  little 
way  in  depressing  the  mind^' 

I  told  him  that  I  had  dined  lately  at  Foote's,  who  shewed 
me  a  letter  which  he  had  received  from  Tom  Davies,  telling 
him  that  he  had  not  been  able  to  sleep  from  the  concern 
which  he  felt  on  account  of  ^TJiis  sad  affair  of  Baretti^,' 
begging  of  him  to  try  if  he  could  suggest  any  thing  that 
might  be  of  service  ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  recommending 

'  Johnson,  during  a  serious  illness,  thus  wrote  to  Mrs.  Thrale : — 
'  When  any  man  finds  himself  disposed  to  complain  with  how  little 
care  he  is  regarded,  let  him  reflect  how  little  he  contributed  to  the 
happiness  of  others,  and  how  little,  for  the  most  part,  he  suffers  from 
their  pain.  It  is  perhaps  not  to  be  lamented  that  those  solicitudes 
are  not  long  nor  frequent  which  must  commonly  be  vain  ;  nor  can  we 
wonder  that,  in  a  state  in  which  all  have  so  much  to  feel  of  their  own 
evils,  very  few  have  leisure  for  those  of  another.'  Piozsi Letters,  i.  14. 
St&  post,  Sept.  14,  1777. 

'  '  I  was  shocked  to  find  a  letter  from  Dr.  Holland,  to  the  effect  that 
poor  Harry  Hallam  is  dying  at  Sienna  [Vienna].  What  a  trial  for  my 
dear  old  friend  !  I  feel  for  the  lad  himself,  too.  Much  distressed.  I 
dined,  however.  We  dine,  unless  the  blow  comes  very,  very  near  the 
heart  indeed.'     Macaulay's  Life,  ii.  287.     See  also  ante,  i.  411. 

^  Set  post,  Feb.  24,  1773,  for '  a  furious  quarrel'  between  Davies  and 
Baretti. 

to 


Aetat.  60.]  Foote  s  hiimour.  109 

to  him  an  industrious  young  man  who  kept  a  pickle-shop. 
Johnson.  'Ay,  Sir,  here  you  have  a  specimen  of  human 
sympathy  ;  a  friend  hanged,  and  a  cucumber  pickled.  We 
know  not  whether  Baretti  or  the  pickle-man  has  kept  Davies 
from  sleep  ;  nor  does  he  know  himself.  And  as  to  his  not 
sleeping.  Sir ;  Tom  Davies  is  a  very  great  man  ;  Tom  has 
been  upon  the  stage,  and  knows  how  to  do  those  things. 
I  have  not  been  upon  the  stage,  and  cannot  do  those  things.' 
BOSWELL.  '  I  have  often  blamed  myself,  Sir,  for  not  feel- 
ing for  others  as  sensibly  as  many  say  they  do.'  JOHNSON. 
'  Sir,  don't  be  duped  by  them  any  more.  You  will  find  these 
very  feeling  people  are  not  veiy  ready  to  do  you  good.  They 
pay  you  hy  feeling.'' 

BoswELL.  'Foote  has  a  great  deal  of  humour?'  JOHN- 
SON. '  Yes,  Sir.'  BosWELL.  '  He  has  a  singular  talent  of  ex- 
hibiting character.'  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  it  is  not  a  talent ;  it  is 
a  vice ;  it  is  what  others  abstain  from.  It  is  not  comedy, 
which  exhibits  the  character  of  a  species,  as  that  of  a  miser 
gathered  from  many  misers :  it  is  farce,  which  exhibits  in- 
dividuals.' BosWELL.  '  Did  not  he  think  of  exhibiting  you, 
Sir?'  Johnson.  '  Sir,  fear  restrained  him;  he  knew  I  would 
have  broken  his  bones.  I  would  have  saved  him  the  trouble 
of  cutting  off  a  leg ;  I  would  not  have  left  him  a  leg  to  cut 
off '.'  BoswELL.  '  Pray,  Sir,  is  not  Foote  an  infidel  ?'  JOHN- 
SON. '  I  do  not  know.  Sir,  that  the  fellow  is  an  infidel ;  but 
if  he  be  an  infidel,  he  is  an  infidel  as  a  dog  is  an  infidel ; 
that   is  to  say,  he  has  never  thought  upon  the  subject^.' 

'  Foote,  two  or  three  years  before  this,  had  lost  one  leg  through  an 
accident  in  hunting.     Forster's  Essays,  ii.  398.     See  post,  under  Feb. 

7,1775- 

^  When  Mr.  Foote  was  at  Edinburgh,  he  thought  fit  to  entertain  a 
numerous  Scotch  company,  with  a  great  deal  of  coarse  jocularity,  at 
the  expense  of  Dr.  Johnson,  imagining  it  would  be  acceptable.  I  felt 
this  as  not  civil  to  mc  ;  but  sat  very  patiently  till  he  had  exhausted 
his  merriment  on  that  subject ;  and  then  observed,  that  surely  John- 
son must  be  allowed  to  have  some  sterling  wit,  and  that  I  had  heard 
him  say  a  very  good  thing  of  Mr.  Foote  himself.  '  Ah,  my  old  friend 
Sam,  (cried  Foote,)  no  man  says  better  things ;  do  let  us  have  it.' 

BOSWKLL. 


no  Footes  humour.  [a.d.  1769, 

BOSWELL.  '  I  suppose,  Sir,  he  has  thought  superficially,  and 
seized  the  first  notions  which  occurred  to  his  mind.'  JOHN- 
SON. '  Why  then,  Sir,  still  he  is  like  a  dog,  that  snatches 
the  piece  next  him.  Did  you  never  observe  that  dogs  have 
not  the  power  of  comparing?  A  dog  will  take  a  small  bit 
of  meat  as  readily  as  a  large,  when  both  are  before  him.' 

'Buchanan,  (he  observed,)  has  fewer  centos^  than  any 
modern  Latin  poet.  He  not  only  had  great  knowledge  of 
the  Latin  language,  but  was  a  great  poetical  genius.  Both 
the  Scaligers  praise  him.' 

He  again  talked  of  the  passage  in  Congrevc  with  high 
commendation,  and  said,  '  Shakspeare  never  has  six  lines 
together  without  a  fault.  Perhaps  you  may  find  seven, 
but  this  does  not  refute  my  general  assertion.  If  I  come 
to  an  orchard,  and  say  there's  no  fruit  here,  and  then  comes 
a  poring  man,  who  finds  two  apples  and  three   pears,  and 

Upon  which  I  told  the  above  story,  which  produced  a  very  loud  laugh 
from  the  company.  But  I  never  saw  Foote  so  disconcerted.  He 
looked  grave  and  angiy,  and  entered  into  a  serious  refutation  of  the 
justice  of  the  remark.  '  What,  Sir,  (said  he,)  talk  thus  of  a  man  of 
liberal  education  ; — a  man  who  for  years  was  at  the  University  of  Ox- 
ford ; — a  man  who  has  added  sixteen  new  characters  to  the  English 
drama  of  his  country  !'     Boswell. 

Foote  was  at  Worcester  College,  but  he  left  without  taking  his  de- 
gree. He  was  constantly  in  scrapes.  When  the  Provost,  Dr.  Gower, 
who  was  a  pedant,  sent  for  him  to  reprimand  him, '  Foote  would  pre- 
sent himself  with  great  apparent  gravity  and  submission,  but  with  a 
large  dictionary  under  his  arm  ;  when,  on  the  doctor  beginning  in  his 
usual  pompous  manner  with  a  surprisingly  long  word,  he  would  im- 
mediately interrupt  him,  and,  after  begging  pardon  with  great  formal- 
ity, would  produce  his  dictionary,  and  pretending  to  nnd  the  meaning 
•of  the  word,  would  say,  "  Very  well,  Sir ;  now  please  to  go  on."  '  For- 
ster's  Essays,  ii.  307.  Dr.  Gower  is  mentioned  by  Dr.  King  (Anec. 
p.  174)  as  one  of  the  three  persons  he  had  known  '  who  spoke  English 
with  that  elegance  and  propriety,  that  if  all  they  said  had  been  im- 
mediately committed  to  v/riting,  any  judge  of  the  language  would 
have  pronounced  it  an  excellent  and  very  beautiful  style.'  The  other 
two  were  Bishop  Atterbury  and  Dr.  Johnson. 

'  '  Cento.  A  composition  formed  by  joining  scrapes  from  other 
authours.'    Johnson's  Dictionary. 

tells 


Aetat.  CO.]        Jokusou  in  a  Court  of  Justice.  1 1 1 

tells  me,  "  Sir,  you  are  mistaken,  I  have  found  both  apples 
and  pears,"  I  should  laugh  at  him  :  what  would  that  be  to 
the  purpose  ?' 

BOSWELL.  '  What  do  you  think  of  Dr.  Young's  Night 
Thoughts,  Sir?'  Johnson.  'Why,  Sir,  there  are  very  fine 
things  in  them  '.'  BosWELL.  '  Is  there  not  less  religion  in 
the  nation  now,  Sir,  than  there  was  formerly?'  JOHNSON. 
'  I  don't  know.  Sir,  that  there  is.'  BoswELL.  '  For  instance, 
there  used  to  be  a  chaplain  in  every  great  family  ^  which 
we  do  not  find  now.'  Johnson.  '  Neither  do  you  find  any 
of  the  state  servants  which  great  families  used  formerly 
to  have.  There  is  a  change  of  modes  in  the  whole  depart- 
ment of  life.' 

Next  day,  October  20,  he  appeared,  for  the  only  time  I 
suppose  in  his  life,  as  a  witness  in  a  Court  of  Justice,  being 
called  to  give  evidence  to  the  character  of  Mr.  Baretti,  who 
having  stabbed  a  man  in  the  street,  was  arraigned  at  the 
Old   Bailey  for  murder  \     Never  did  such  a  constellation 

'  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Sept.  30,  1773. 

-  For  the  position  of  these  chaplains  see  T/te  Tl^/Zcr,  No.  255,  and 
The  Guardian,  No.  163. 

'  '  He  had  been  assailed  in  the  grossest  manner  possible  by  a  woman 
of  the  town,  and,  driving  her  off  with  a  blow,  was  set  upon  by  three 
bullies.  He  thereupon  ran  away  in  great  fear,  for  he  was  a  timid  man, 
and  being  pursued,  had  stabbed  two  of  the  men  with  a  small  knife  he 
carried  in  his  pocket.'  Garrick  and  Beauclerk  testified  that  every 
one  abroad  carried  such  a  knife,  for  in  foreign  inns  only  forks  were 
provided.  '  When  you  travel  abroad  do  you  carry  such  knives  as 
this  ?'  Garrick  was  asked.  '  Yes,'  he  answered, '  or  we  should  have  no 
victuals.'  Dr.  Johnson  :  His  Friends  and  His  Critics,  p.  288.  I  have 
extracted  from  the  Sessional  Reports  for  1769,  p.  431,  the  following  evi- 
dence as  to  Baretti's  character:  —  'Sir  Joshua  Reynolds.  I  have 
known  Mr.  Baretti  fifteen  or  sixteen  years.  He  is  a  man  of  great  hu- 
manity, and  very  active  in  endeavouring  to  help  his  friends.  He  is  a 
gentleman  of  a  good  temper;  I  never  knew  him  quarrelsome  in  my 
life ;  he  is  of  a  sober  disposition.  .  .  .  This  affair  was  on  a  club  night 
of  the  Royal  Academicians.  We  expected  him  there,  and  were  in- 
quiring about  him  before  we  heard  of  this  accident.  He  is  secretary 
for  foreign  correspondence.'  'Dk.  Johnson.  I  believe  I  began  to 
be  acquainted  with  Mr.  Baretti  about  the  year  '53  or  '54.    I  have  been 

of 


112  Barettis  trial.  [a.d.  1769. 

of  genius  enlighten  the  aweful  Sessions- House,  emphatic- 
ally called  Justice  Hall;  Mr.  Burke,  Mr.  Garrick,  Mr. 
Beauclerk,  and  Dr.  Johnson  :  and  undoubtedly  their  favour- 
able testimony  had  due  weight  with  the  Court  and  Jury. 
Johnson  gave  his  evidence  in  a  slow,  deliberate,  and  dis- 
tinct manner,  which  was  uncommonly  impressive.  It  is  well 
known  that  Mr.  Baretti  was  acquitted. 

intimate  with  him.  He  is  a  man  of  literature,  a  very  studious  man,  a 
man  of  great  diligence.  He  gets  his  living  by  study.  I  have  no  rea- 
son to  think  he  was  ever  disordered  with  liquor  in  his  life.  A  man 
that  I  never  knew  to  be  otherwise  than  peaceable,  and  a  man  that  I 
take  to  be  rather  timorous.'  Qu.  '  Was  he  addicted  to  pick  up  women 
in  the  street?'  '  Dr.  J.  I  never  knew  that  he  was.'  Qu.  '  How  is  he 
as  to  his  eye-sight?'  'Dr.  J.  He  does  not  see  me  now,  nor  I  do  not 
[sic]  see  him.  I  do  not  believe  he  could  be  capable  of  assaulting  any- 
body in  the  street  without  great  provocation.'  '  Edmund  Burke, 
Esq.  I  have  known  him  between  three  and  four  years ;  he  is  an  in- 
genious man,  a  man  of  remarkable  humanity — a  thorough  good-nat- 
ured man.'  '  David  Garrick,  Esq.  I  never  knew  a  man  of  a  more 
active  benevolence.  .  .  .  He  is  a  man  of  great  probity  and  morals.' 
'  Dr.  Goldsmith.  I  have  had  the  honour  of  Mr.  Baretti's  company 
at  my  chambers  in  the  Temple.  He  is  a  most  humane,  benevolent, 
peaceable  man.  .  .  .  He  is  a  man  of  as  great  humanity  as  any  in  the 
world.'  Mr.  Fitzherbert  and  Dr.  Hallifax  also  gave  evidence.  'There 
were  divers  other  gentlemen  in  court  to  speak  for  his  character,  but 
the  Court  thought  it  needless  to  call  them.'  It  is  curious  that  Bos- 
well  passes  over  Reynolds  and  Goldsmith  among  the  witnesses.  Ba- 
retti's bail  before  Lord  Mansfield  were  Burke,  Garrick,  Reynolds,  and 
Fitzherbert.  Mrs.  Piozzi  tells  the  following  anecdotes  of  Baretti . — 
'  When  Johnson  and  Burke  went  to  see  him  in  Newgate,  they  had 
small  comfort  to  give  him,  and  bid  him  not  hope  too  strongly.  "  Why, 
what  can  he  fear,"  says  Baretti,  placing  himself  between  them,  "  that 
holds  two  such  hands  as  I  do  ?"  An  Italian  came  one  day  to  Ba- 
retti, when  he  was  in  Newgate,  to  desire  a  letter  of  recommendation 
for  the  teaching  his  scholars,  when  he  (Baretti)  should  be  hanged. 
"  You  rascal,"  replies  Baretti  in  a  rage,  "  if  I  were  not  in  7iiy  own 
apartment,  I  would  kick  you  down  stairs  directly."  '  Hayward's  Pi- 
ozzi, ii.  348.  Dr.  T.  Campbell,  in  his  Diary  (p.  52),  wrote  on  April  i, 
1775: — '  Boswell  and  Baretti,  as  I  learned,  are  mortal  foes;  so  much 
so  that  Murphy  and  Mrs.  Thrale  agreed  that  Boswell  expressed  a  de- 
sire that  Baretti  should  be  hanged  upon  that  unfortunate  aflfair  of  his 
killing,  &c.' 

On 


Aetat,  60.]  Trade.  1 1 3 

On  the  26th  of  October,  we  dined  together  at  the  Mitre 
tavern.  I  found  fault  with  Foote  for  indulging  his  talent 
of  ridicule  at  the  expence  of  his  visitors,  which  I  colloqui- 
ally termed  making  fools  of  his  company.  JOHNSON.  'Why, 
Sir,  when  you  go  to  see  Foote,  you  do  not  go  to  see  a  saint : 
you  go  to  see  a  man  who  will  be  entertained  at  your  house, 
and  then  bring  you  on  a  publick  stage ;  who  will  entertain 
you  at  his  house,  for  the  very  purpose  of  bringing  you  on  a 
publick  stage.  Sir,  he  does  not  make  fools  of  his  company; 
they  whom  he  exposes  are  fools  already :  he  only  brings 
them  into  action.' 

Talking  of  trade,  he  observed,  '  It  is  a  mistaken  notion 
that  a  vast  deal  of  money  is  brought  into  a  nation  by  trade. 
It  is  not  so.  Commodities  come  from  commodities ;  but 
trade  produces  no  capital  accession  of  wealth.  However, 
though  there  should  be  little  profit  in  money,  there  is  a 
considerable  profit  in  pleasure,  as  it  gives  to  one  nation 
the  productions  of  another;  as  we  have  wines  and  fruits, 
and  many  other  foreign  articles,  brought  to  us.'  BOSWELL. 
'Yes,  Sir,  and  there  is  a  profit  in  pleasure,  by  its  furnishing 
occupation  to  such  numbers  of  mankind.'  JOHNSON.  '  Why, 
Sir,  \'ou  cannot  call  that  pleasure  to  which  all  are  averse, 
and  which  none  begin  but  with  the  hope  of  leaving  off ;  a 
thing  which  men  dislike  before  they  have  tried  it,  and  when 
they  have  tried  it.'  BosWELL.  '  But,  Sir,  the  mind  must 
be  employed,  and  we  grow  weary  when  idle.'  JOHNSON. 
'  That  is,  Sir,  because,  others  being  busy,  we  want  compa- 
ny;  but  if  we  were  all  idle,  there  would  be  no  growing 
weary ;  we  should  all  entertain  one  another.  There  is,  in- 
deed, this  in  trade  : — it  gives  men  an  opportunity  of  im- 
proving their  situation.  If  there  were  no  trade,  many  who 
are  poor  would  always  remain  poor.  But  no  man  loves 
labour  for  itself.'  BosWELL.  'Yes,  Sir,  I  know  a  person 
who  does.  He  is  a  very  laborious  Judge,  and  he  loves  the 
labour'.'     JOHNSON.  'Sir,  that  is  because  he  loves  respect 

'  Lord  Auchinleck,  wc  may  assume.     Johnson  said  of  Pope,  that '  he 

was  one  of  those  few  whose  lalxnir  is  their  pleasure.'      Works,  viii.  321. 

1 1. -8  and 


114  Tea  with  Mrs.  Williams.  [a.d.  17G9. 

and  distinction.  Could  he  have  them  without  labour,  he 
would  like  it  less.'  BOSWELL.  '  He  tells  me  he  likes  it  for 
itself.'  — '  Why,  Sir,  he  fancies  so,  because  he  is  not  ac- 
customed to  abstract.' 

We  went  home  to  his  house  to  tea.  Mrs.  Williams  made 
it  with  sufficient  dexterity,  notwithstanding  her  blindness, 
though  her  manner  of  satisfying  herself  that  the  cups  were 
full  enough  appeared  to  me  a  little  aukward  ;  for  I  fancied 
she  put  her  finger  down  a  certain  way,  till  she  felt  the  tea 
touch  it '.  In  my  first  elation  at  being  allowed  the  privi- 
lege of  attending  Dr.  Johnson  at  his  late  visits  to  this  lady, 
which  was  like  being  c  sccrctioribiis  consiliis'^,  I  willingly 
drank  cup  after  cup,  as  if  it  had  been  the  Heliconian  spring. 
But  as  the  charm  of  novelty  went  off,  I  grew  more  fastidi- 
ous; and  besides,  I  discovered  that  she  was  of  a  peevish 
temper  \' 

There  was  a  pretty  large  circle  this  evening.  Dr.  John- 
son was  in  very  good  humour,  lively,  and  ready  to  talk 
upon  all  subjects.  Mr.  Fergusson,  the  self-taught  philoso- 
pher, told  him  of  a  new  invented  machine  which  went  with- 
out horses :  a  man  who  sat  in  it  turned  a  handle,  which 
worked  a  spring  that  drove  it  forward.  '  Then,  Sir,  (said 
Johnson,)  what  is  gained  is,  the  man  has  his  choice  whether 
he  will  move  himself  alone,  or  himself  and  the  machine  too.' 
Dominicetti  *  being  mentioned,  he  would  not  allow  him  any 
merit.     '  There  is  nothing  in  all  this  boasted  system.     No, 

'  I  have  since  had  reason  to  think  that  I  was  mistaken ;  for  I  have 
been  informed  by  a  lady,  who  was  long  intimate  with  her,  and  Hkely 
to  be  a  more  accurate  observer  of  such  matters,  that  she  had  acquired 
such  a  niceness  of  touch,  as  to  know,  by  the  feeling  on  the  outside  of 
the  cup,  how  near  it  was  to  being  full.  Boswell.  Baretti,  in  a  MS. 
note  on  Piozsi  Letters,  ii.  84,  says  : — '  I  dined  with  Dr.  Johnson  as  sel- 
dom as  I  could,  though  often  scolded  for  it ;  but  I  hated  to  see  the 
victuals  pawed  by  poor  Mrs.  Williams,  that  would  often  carve,  though 
stone  blind.' 

'  See  aiitc,]u\Y  i  and  Aug.  2,  1763. 

^  See  ante,  i.  269,  note. 

*  An  Italian  quack  who  in  1765  established  medicated  baths  in 
Cheney  Walk,  Chelsea.     Croker, 

Sir; 


Aetat.  60.]        Johnson  s  talking  for  victory.  115 

Sir ;  medicated  baths  can  be  no  better  than  warm  water : 
their  only  effect  can  be  that  of  tepid  moisture.'  One  of 
the  company  took  the  other  side,  maintaining  that  medi- 
cines of  various  sorts,  and  some  too  of  most  powerful  ef- 
fect, are  introduced  into  the  human  frame  by  the  medium 
of  the  pores ;  and,  therefore,  when  warm  water  is  impreg- 
nated with  salutiferous  substances,  it  may  produce  great 
effects  as  a  bath.  This  appeared  to  me  v^ery  satisfactory. 
Johnson  did  not  answer  it ;  but  talking  for  victory,  and  de- 
termined to  be  master  of  the  field,  he  had  recourse  to  the 
device  which  Goldsmith  imputed  to  him  in  the  witty  words 
of  one  of  Gibber's  comedies :  '  There  is  no  arguing  with 
Johnson  ;  for  when  his  pistol  misses  fire,  he  knocks  you 
down  w^ith  the  butt  end  of  it '.'  He  turned  to  the  gentle- 
man,'Well,  Sir,  go  to  Dominicetti,  and  get  thyself  fumi- 
gated ;  but  be  sure  that  the  steam  be  directed  to  thy  head, 
for  that  is  the  peccant  part.'  This  produced  a  triumphant 
roar  of  laughter  from  the  motley  assembly  of  philosophers, 
printers,  and  dependents,  male  and  female. 

I  know  not  how  so  whimsical  a  thought  came  into  my 
mind,  but  I  asked, '  If,  Sir,  you  were  shut  up  in  a  castle,  and 

'  The  same  saying  is  recorded /ti^/,  May  15,  1784,  and  in  Boswell's 
Hebrides,  Oct.  5,  1773.  '  Cooke  reports  another  saying  of  Goldsmith's 
to  the  same  effect : — "  There's  no  chance  for  you  in  arguing  with 
Johnson.  Like  the  Tartar  horse,  if  he  does  not  conquer  you  in  front, 
his  kick  from  behind  is  sure  to  be  fatal." '  Forster's  Gohisniith,  ii. 
167.  'In  arguing,'  wrote  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  'Johnson  did  not 
trouble  himself  with  much  circumlocution,  but  opposed  directly  and 
abruptly  his  antagonist.  He  fought  with  all  sorts  of  weapons — ludi- 
crous comparisons  and  similes ;  if  all  failed,  with  rudeness  and  over- 
bearing. He  thought  it  necessary  never  to  be  worsted  in  argument. 
He  had  one  virtue  which  I  hold  one  of  the  most  difficult  to  practise. 
After  the  heat  of  contest  was  over,  if  he  had  been  informed  that  his 
antagonist  resented  his  rudeness,  he  was  the  first  to  seek  after  a  rec- 
onciliation. .  .  .  That  he  was  not  thus  strenuous  for  victory  with  his 
intimates  in  tete-a-tete  conversations  when  there  were  no  witnesses, 
may  be  easily  believed.  Indeed,  had  his  conduct  been  to  them  the 
same  as  he  exhibited  to  the  public,  his  friends  could  never  have  en- 
tertained that  love  and  affection  for  him  which  they  all  feel  and  pro- 
fess for  his  memory.'     Taylor's  Reynolds,  ii.  457, 462. 

a  new-born 


ii6  Men  bred  in  Londo7t.  [a.d.  1769, 

a  new-born  child  with  you,  what  would  you  do?'  JOHN- 
SON. '  Why,  Sir,  I  should  not  much  like  my  company.' 
BOSWELL.  '  But  would  you  take  the  trouble  of  rearing  it  ?' 
He  seemed,  as  may  well  be  supposed,  unwilling  to  pursue 
the  subject :  but  upon  my  persevering  in  my  question,  re- 
plied, '  Why  yes.  Sir,  I  would;  but  I  must  have  all  con- 
veniencies.  If  I  had  no  garden,  I  would  make  a  shed  on 
the  roof,  and  -take  it  there  for  fresh  air.  I  should  feed 
it,  and  wash  it  much,  and  with  warm  water  to  please  it, 
not  with  cold  water  to  give  it  pain.'  BoswELL.  '  But,  Sir, 
does  not  heat  relax?'  Johnson.  '  Sir,  you  are  not  to 
imagine  the  water  is  to  be  very  hot.  I  would  not  coddle 
the  child.  No,  Sir,  the  hardy  method  of  treating  children 
does  no  good.  I'll  take  you  five  children  from  London, 
who  shall  cuff  five  Highland  children.  Sir,  a  man  bred  in 
London  will  carry  a  burthen,  or  run,  or  wrestle,  as  well  as 
a  man  brought  up  in  the  hardiest  manner  in  the  countr}^' 
BoswELL.  '  Good  living,  I  suppose,  makes  the  Londoners 
strong.'  Johnson.  'Why,  Sir,  I  don't  know  that  it  does. 
Our  Chairmen  from  Ireland,  who  are  as  strong  men  as  any, 
have  been  brought  up  upon  potatoes.  Quantity  makes  up 
for  quality.'  BosWELL.  *  Would  you  teach  this  child,  that 
I  have  furnished  you  with,  any  thing?'  JOHNSON.  'No, 
I  should  not  be  apt  to  teach  it.'  BoswELL.  '  Would  not 
you  have  a  pleasure  in  teaching  it  ?'  JOHNSON.  '  No,  Sir,  I 
should  not  have  a  pleasure  in  teaching  it.'  BoswELL.  '  Have 
you  not  a  pleasure  in  teaching  men? — TJicrc  I  have  you. 
You  have  the  same  pleasure  in  teaching  men,  that  I  should 
have  in  teaching  children.'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  something 
about  that.' 

BosWELL.  '  Do  you  think.  Sir,  that  what  is  called  natural 
affection  is  born  with  us?  It  seems  to  me  to  be  the  effect 
of  habit,  or  of  gratitude  for  kindness.  No  child  has  it  for 
a  parent  whom  it  has  not  seen.'  JOHNSON.  'Why,  Sir,  I 
think  there  is  an  instinctive  natural  affection  in  parents 
towards  their  children.' 

Russia  being  mentioned  as  likely  to  become  a  great  em- 
pire, by  the  rapid  increase  of  population  : — JOHNSON.  '  Why, 

Sir, 


Aetat.  60.]  Landlords  and  tenants.  117 

Sir,  I  see  no  prospect  of  their  propagating  more.  They  can 
have  no  more  chikh-en  than  they  can  get.  I  know  of  no 
way  to  make  them  breed  more  than  they  do.  It  is  not  from 
reason  and  prudence  that  people  marry,  but  from  inchna- 
tion.  A  man  is  poor;  he  thinks,"!  cannot  be  worse,  and 
so  I'll  e'en  take  Peggy."  '  BOSWELL.  '  But  have  not  nations 
been  more  populous  at  one  period  than  another?'  JOHN- 
SON. '  Yes,  Sir  ;  but  that  has  been  owing  to  the  people  being 
less  thinned  at  one  period  than  another,  whether  by  emigra- 
tions, war,  or  pestilence,  not  by  their  being  more  or  less  pro- 
lifick.  Births  at  all  times  bear  the  same  proportion  to  the 
same  number  of  people.'  BoswELL.  '  But,  to  consider  the 
state  of  our  own  country ; — does  not  throwing  a  number  of 
farms  into  one  hand  hurt  population?'  JOHNSON.  *  Why  no, 
Sir ;  the  same  quantity  of  food  being  produced,  will  be  con- 
sumed by  the  same  number  of  mouths,  though  the  people 
may  be  disposed  of  in  different  ways.  We  see,  if  corn  be 
dear,  and  butchers'  meat  cheap,  the  farmers  all  apply  them- 
selves to  the  raising  of  corn,  till  it  becomes  plentiful  and 
cheap,  and  then  butchers'  meat  becomes  dear ;  so  that  an 
equality  is  always  preserved.  No,  Sir,  let  fanciful  men  do 
as  they  will,  depend  upon  it,  it  is  difficult  to  disturb  the 
system  of  life.'  BosWELL.  '  But,  Sir,  is  it  not  a  very  bad 
thing  for  landlords  to  oppress  their  tenants,  by  raising  their 
rents?'  Johnson.  'Very  bad.  But,  Sir,  it  never  can  have 
any  general  influence  ;  it  may  distress  some  individuals.  For, 
consider  this :  landlords  cannot  do  Avithout  tenants.  Now 
tenants  will  not  give  more  for  land  than  land  is  worth.  If 
they  can  make  more  of  their  money  by  keeping  a  shop,  or 
any  other  way,  they'll  do  it,  and  so  oblige  landlords  to  let 
land  come  back  to  a  reasonable  rent,  in  order  that  they  may 
get  tenants.  Land,  in  England,  is  an  article  of  commerce. 
A  tenant  who  pays  his  landlord  his  rent,  thinks  himself  no 
more  obliged  to  him  than  you  think  yourself  obliged  to  a 
man  in  whose  shop  you  buy  a  piece  of  goods.  He  knows 
the  landlord  does  not  let  him  have  his  land  for  less  than 
he  can  get  from  others,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  shop- 
keeper  sells   his    goods.     No    shopkeeper   sells    a   yard    of 

ribband 


ii8  Landlords  and  tenants.  [a.d.  17C9. 

ribband  for  sixpence  when  sevenpence  is  the  current  price.' 
BOSWELL.  '  But,  Sir,  is  it  not  better  that  tenants  should 
be  dependant  on  landlords  ?'  Johnson.  'Why,  Sir,  as  there 
are  many  more  tenants  than  landlords,  perhaps,  strictly 
speaking,  we  should  wish  not.  But  if  you  please  you 
may  let  your  lands  cheap,  and  so  get  the  value,  part  in 
money  and  part  in  homage.  I  should  agree  with  you  in 
that.'  BoswELL.  *  So,  Sir,  you  laugh  at  schemes  of  political 
improvement.'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir,  most  schemes  of  po- 
litical improvement  are  very  laughable  things.' 

He  observed,  '  Providence  has  wisely  ordered  that  the 
more  numerous  men  are,  the  more  difficult  it  is  for  them 
to  agree  in  any  thing,  and  so  they  are  governed.  There 
is  no  doubt,  that  if  the  poor  should  reason,  "  We'll  be  the 
poor  no  longer,  we'll  make  the  rich  take  their  turn,"  they 
could  easily  do  it,  were  it  not  that  they  can't  agree.  So 
the  common  soldiers,  though  so  much  more  numerous  than 
their  officers,  are  governed  by  them  for  the  same  reason.' 

He  said, '  Mankind  have  a  strong  attachment  to  the  habi- 
tations to  which  they  have  been  accustomed.  You  see  the 
inhabitants  of  Norway  do  not  with  one  consent  quit  it,  and 
go  to  some  part  of  America,  where  there  is  a  mild  climate, 
and  where  they  may  have  the  same  produce  from  land,  with 
the  tenth  part  of  the  labour.  No,  Sir;  their  affection  for 
their  old  dwellings,  and  the  terrour  of  a  general  change, 
keep  them  at  home.  Thus,  we  see  many  of  the  finest  spots 
in  the  world  thinly  inhabited,  and  many  rugged  spots  well 
inhabited.' 

TJie  London  Chronicle\  which  was  the  only  news-paper 
he  constantly  took  in,  being  brought,  the  office  of  reading 
it  aloud  was  assigned  to  me.  I  was  diverted  by  his  im- 
patience. He  made  me  pass  over  so  many  parts  of  it,  that 
my  task  was  very  easy.  He  would  not  suffer  one  of  the 
petitions  to  the  King  about  the  Middlesex  election  to  be 
read  ^ 

'  He  had  written  the  Infroductiofi  to  it.     Ante,  i.368. 
^  See  ^(?.f/,  beginning  of  1770. 

I  had 


Aetat.  GO.]  Papists  and  Presbyterians.  1 1 9 

I  had  hired  a  Bohemian  as  my  servant'  while  I  remained 
in  London,  and  being  much  pleased  with  him,  I  asked  Dr. 
Johnson  whether  his  being  a  Roman  Catholick  should  pre- 
vent my  taking  him  with  me  to  Scotland.  JOHNSON.  'Why 
no,  Sir,  if  he  has  no  objection,  you  can  have  none.'  Bos- 
WELL.  '  So,  Sir,  you  are  no  great  enemy  to  the  Roman 
Catholick  religion.'  JOHNSON.  *  No  more,  Sir,  than  to  the 
Presbyterian  religion.'  BOSWELL.  'You  are  joking.'  JOHN- 
SON. '  No,  Sir,  I  really  think  so.  Nay,  Sir,  of  the  two,  I 
prefer  the  Popish '.'  Boswell.  '  How  so,  Sir?'  JOHNSON. 
'  Why,  Sir,  the  Presbyterians  have  no  church,  no  apostolical 
ordination.'  BOSWELL.  '  And  do  you  think  that  absolutely 
essential,  Sir?'  JOHNSON.  'Why,  Sir,  as  it  was  an  apos- 
tolical institution,  I  think  it  is  dangerous  to  be  without  it. 
And,  Sir,  the  Presbyterians  have  no  publick  worship :  they 
have  no  form  of  prayer  in  which  they  know  they  are  to  join. 
They  go  to  hear  a  man  pray,  and  are  to  judge  whether 
they  will  join  with  him.'  BosWELL.  '  But,  Sir,  their  doc- 
trine is  the  same  with  that  of  the  Church  of  England.  Their 
confession  of  faith,  and  the  thirty-nine  articles,  contain  the 
same  points,  even  the  doctrine  of  predestination.  JOHN- 
SON. '  Why  yes,  Sir,  predestination  was  a  part  of  the  clamour 
of  the  times,  so  it  is  mentioned  in  our  articles,  but  with  as 
little  positiveness  as  could  be.'  BoswELL.  '  Is  it  necessary. 
Sir,  to  believe  all  the  thirty-nine  articles?'  JOHNSON.  'Why, 
Sir,  that  is  a  question  which  has  been  much  agitated.  Some 
have  thought  it  necessary  that  they  should  all  be  believed ; 
others  have  considered  them  to  be  only  articles  of  peace, 
that  is  to  say,  you  are  not  to  preach  against  them  \' 
BosWELL.  '  It  appears  to  me.  Sir,  that  predestination,  or 
what  is  equivalent  to  it,  cannot  be  avoided,  if  wc  hold  an 

'  He  accompanied  Bosvvell  on  his  tour  to  the  Hebrides.  Boswell's 
Hebrides,  Aug.  i8,  1773. 

"^  While  he  was  in  Scotland  he  never  entered  one  of  the  churches. 
'  I  will  not  give  a  sanction,'  he  said, '  by  my  presence,  to  a  Presbyterian 
assembly.'  lb.  Aug.  27,  1773.  When  he  was  in  France  he  went  to  a 
Roman  Catholic  service  ;  posi,  Oct.  29,  1775. 

'  Sec  post,  March  21,  1772. 

universal 


I20  P  redes  tmation  and  free  will.         [a.d.  1769. 

universal  prescience  in  the  Deity.'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir, 
does  not  GOD  every  day  see  things  going  on  without  pre- 
venting them?'  BOSWELL.  'True,  Sir;  but  if  a  thing  hQ  cer- 
tainly foreseen,  it  must  be  fixed,  and  cannot  happen  other- 
wise;  and  if  we  apply  this  consideration  to  the  human 
mind,  there  is  no  free  will,  nor  do  I  see  how  prayer  can 
be  of  any  avail.'  He  mentioned  Dr.  Clarke,  and  Bishop 
Bramhall  on  Liberty  and  Necessity,  and  bid  me  read  South's 
Sermons  on  Prayer ;  but  avoided  the  question  which  has 
excruciated  philosophers  and  divines,  beyond  any  other.  I 
did  not  press  it  further,  when  I  perceived  that  he  was  dis- 
pleased', and  shrunk  from  any  abridgement  of  an  attribute 
usually  ascribed  to  the  Divinity,  however  irreconcileable  in 
its  full  extent  with  the  grand  system  of  moral  government. 
His  supposed  orthodoxy  here  cramped  the  vigorous  powers 
of  his  understanding.  He  was  confined  by  a  chain  which 
early  imagination  and  long  habit  made  him  think  massy 
and  strong,  but  which,  had  he  ventured  to  try,  he  could  at 
once  have  snapt  asunder. 

I  proceeded:  'What  do  you  think,  Sir,  of  Purgatory",  as 
believed  by  the  Roman  Catholicks?'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir, 
it  is  a  very  harmless  doctrine.  They  are  of  opinion  that  the 
generality  of  mankind  are  neither  so  obstinately  wicked  as 
to  deserve  everlasting  punishment,  nor  so  good  as  to  merit 
being  admitted  into  the  society  of  blessed  spirits;  and  there- 
fore that  God  is  graciously  pleased  to  allow  of  a  middle 
state,  where  they  may  be  purified  by  certain  degrees  of  suf- 
fering. You  see.  Sir,  there  is  nothing  unreasonable  in  this.' 
BoswELL.  '  But  then,  Sir,  their  masses  for  the  dead?'  JOHN- 
SON. '  Why,  Sir,  if  it  be  once  established  that  there  are  souls 
in  purgatory,  it  is  as  proper  to  pray  for  tJicni,  as  for  our 
brethren  of  mankind  who  are  yet  in  this  life.'  BosWELL. 
'The  idolatry  of  the  Mass?'  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  there  is  no 
idolatry  in  the  Mass.  They  believe  GOD  to  be  there,  and 
they  adore  him.'  BosWELL.  '  The  worship  of  Saints  ?' 
Johnson.  '  Sir,  they  do   not   worship   saints ;   they   invoke 

'  See  a7itc,  ii.  94.  *  "Bt&Q.  post,  March  27,  1772. 

them ; 


Aetat.  60.]  Roman  Catholick  doctrines.  121 

them  ;  they  only  ask  their  prayers '.  I  am  talking  all  this 
time  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  I  grant 
you  that  in  practice,  Purgatory  is  made  a  lucrative  imposi- 
tion, and  that  the  people  do  become  idolatrous  as  they 
recommend  themselves  to  the  tutelary  protection  of  par- 
ticular saints.  I  think  their  giving  the  sacrament  only  in 
one  kind  is  criminal,  because  it  is  contrary  to  the  express 
institution  of  CHRIST,  and  I  wonder  how  the  Council  of 
Trent  admitted  it.'  BOSWELL.  'Confession?'  JOHNSON. 
'  Why,  I  don't  know  but  that  is  a  good  thing.  The  script- 
ure says,  "  Confess  your  faults  one  to  another","  and  the 
priests  confess  as  well  as  the  laity.  Then  it  must  be  con- 
sidered that  their  absolution  is  only  upon  repentance,  and 
often  upon  penance  also.  You  think  your  sins  may  be  for- 
given without  penance,  upon  repentance  alone.' 

I  thus  ventured  to  mention  all  the  common  objections 
against  the  Roman  Catholick  Church,  that  I  might  hear 
so  great  a  man  upon  them.  What  he  said  is  here  accurately 
recorded.  But  it  is  not  improbable  that  if  one  had  taken 
the  other  side,  he  might  have  reasoned  differently. 

I  must  however  mention,  that  he  had  a  respect  for  'tJie 
old  religion,'  as  the  mild  Melancthon '  called  that  of  the 
Roman  Catholick  Church,  even  while  he  was  exerting  him- 
self for  its  reformation  in  some  particulars.  Sir  William 
Scott  informs  me,  that  he  heard  Johnson  say, 'A  man  who 
is  converted  from  Protestantism  to  Popery  may  be  sincere ; 
he  parts  with  nothing:  he  is  only  superadding  to  what  he 
already  had.  But  a  convert  from  Popery  to  Protestantism 
gives  up  so  much  of  what  he  has  held  as  sacred  as  any  thing 
that  he  retains;  there  is  so  much  laceration  of  mind"  in  such 
a  conversion,  that  it  can  hardly  be  sincere  and  lasting'.' 
The   truth   of   this   reflection    may  be   confirmed   by   many 

'  Sec  post,  May  7,  1773,001.  10,  1779,  and  June  9,  1784. 
'  St.  James,  V.  16. 
'  See  post,  June  28,  1777,  note. 

*  Laceration  was    properly  a  term  of  surgery ;  hence  the   itaHcs. 
See  post,]^n.  20,  1780. 
'  See /<?5-/,  April  15,  1778. 

and 


12  2  The  fear  of  death.  [a.d.  1769. 

and  eminent  instances,  some  of  which  will  occur  to  most 
of  my  readers. 

When  we  were  alone,  I  introduced  the  subject  of  death, 
and  endeavoured  to  maintain  that  the  fear  of  it  might  be 
got  over.  I  told  him  that  David  Hume  said  to  me,  he  was 
no  more  uneasy  to  think  he  should  not  be  after  this  life, 
than  that  he  had  not  been  before  he  began  to  exist.  JOHN- 
SON. '  Sir,  if  he  really  thinks  so,  his  perceptions  are  dis- 
turbed ;  he  is  mad  :  if  he  does  not  think  so,  he  lies.  He 
may  tell  you,  he  holds  his  finger  in  the  flame  of  a  candle, 
without  feeling  pain  ;  would  you  believe  him  ?  When  he 
dies,  he  at  least  gives  up  all  he  has.'  Boswell.  '  Foote, 
Sir,  told  me,  that  when  he  was  very  ill  he  was  not  afraid 
to  die.'  Johnson.  'It  is  not  true.  Sir'.  Hold  a  pistol  to 
Foote's  breast,  or  to  Hume's  breast,  and  threaten  to  kill 
them,  and  you'll  see  how  they  behave.'  BosWELL.  '  But 
may  we  not  fortify  our  minds  for  the  approach  of  death  ?' 
Here  I  am  sensible  I  was  in  the  wrong,  to  bring  before 
his  view  what  he  ever  looked  upon  with  horrour;  for  al- 
though when  in  a  celestial  frame,  in  his  Vanity  of  Human 
Wislics,  he  has  supposed  death  to  be  'kind  Nature's  signal 
for  retreat,'  from  this  state  of  being  to  '  a  happier  seat^'  his 
thoughts  upon  this  aweful  change  were  in  general  full  of 
dismal  apprehensions.  His  mind  resembled  the  vast  amphi- 
theatre, the  Colisseum  at  Rome.  In  the  centre  stood  his 
judgement,  which,  like  a  mighty  gladiator,  combated  those 
apprehensions  that,  like  the  wild  beasts  of  the  Arena,  were 
all  around  in  cells,  ready  to  be  let  out  upon  him.  After 
a  conflict,  he  drives  them  back  into  their  dens ;  but  not 
killing  them,  they  were  still  assailing  him.  To  my  question, 
whether  we  might  not  fortify  our  minds  for  the  approach 
of  death,  he  answered,  in  a  passion,  '  No,  Sir,  let  it  alone. 
It  matters  not  how  a  man  dies,  but  how  he  hves.     The  act 


'  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Sept.  12,  1773. 
*  He  bids  us  pray 

'  For  faith  that  panting  for  a  happier  seat, 
Counts  death  kind  nature's  signal  of  retreat.' 

of 


Aetat.60.]       A  quarrel  and  a  reconciliaiion.  123 

of  dying  is  not  of  importance,  it  lasts  so  short  a  time '.'  He 
added,  (with  an  earnest  look,)  'A  man  knows  it  must  be  so, 
and  submits.     It  will  do  him  no  good  to  whine.' 

I  attempted  to  continue  the  conversation.  He  was  so 
provoked,  that  he  said,  '  Give  us  no  more  of  this ;'  and  was 
thrown  into  such  a  state  of  agitation,  that  he  expressed 
himself  in  a  way  that  alarmed  and  distressed  me ;  shewed 
an  impatience  that  I  should  leave  him,  and  when  I  was 
going  away,  called  to  me  sternly,  '  Don't  let  us  meet  to- 
morrow.' 

I  went  home  exceedingly  uneasy.  All  the  harsh  observa- 
tions which  I  had  ever  heard  made  upon  his  character, 
crowded  into  my  mind  ;  and  I  seemed  to  myself  like  the 
man  who  had  put  his  head  into  the  lion's  mouth  a  great 
many  times  with  perfect  safety,  but  at  last  had  it  bit  off. 

Next  morning  I  sent  him  a  note,  stating,  that  I  might 
have  been  in  the  wrong,  but  it  w^as  not  inten-tionally ;  he 
was  therefore,  I  could  not  help  thinking,  too  severe  upon 
me.  That  notwithstanding  our  agreement  not  to  meet  that 
day,  I  would  call  on  him  in  my  way  to  the  city,  and  stay 
five  minutes  by  my  watch.  '  You  are,  (said  I,)  in  my  mind, 
since  last  night,  surrounded  with  cloud  and  storm.  Let 
me  have  a  glimpse  of  sunshine,  and  go  about  my  affairs 
in  serenity  and  chearfulness.' 

Upon  entering  his  study,  I  was  glad  that  he  was  not 
alone,  which  would  have  made  our  meeting  more  awkward. 
There  were  with  him,  Mr.  Steevens'  and  Mr.  Tyers',  both 
of  whom  I  now  saw  for  the  first  time.     My  note  had,  on ' 

'  'To  die  is  landing  on  some  silent  shore. 

Where  billows  never  beat,  nor  tempests  roar, 
Ere  well  we  feel  the  friendly  stroke,  'tis  o'er.' 
Garth.  Quoted  in  Johnson's  IVor/.s,  vi.  61.  Bacon,  if  he  was  the  au- 
thor of  An  Essay  on  Death,  says, '  I  do  not  believe  that  any  man  fears 
to  be  dead,  but  only  the  stroke  of  death.'  Spedding's  Bacon,  vi.  600. 
Cicero  {Tuscid.  Qua-st.  i.  8j  quotes  Epicharmus's  saying  :— '  Emori  nolo. 
sed  me  esse  mortuum  nihil  aistimo.' 

'  See/^^A  beginning  of  1773.  '  Si^Q  post ,  A^prW  17,1778- 

*  Perhaps  on  is  a  misprint  for  or. 

his 


1 24  Blackmores  supposed  lines.  [a.d.  1769. 

his  own  reflection,  softened  him,  for  he  received  me  very 
complacently ;  so  that  I  unexpectedly  found  myself  at  ease, 
and  joined  in  the  conversation. 

He  said,  the  criticks  had  done  too  much  honour  to  Sir 
Richard  Blackmorc,  by  writing  so  much  against  him  \  That 
in  his  Creation  he  had  been  helped  by  various  wits,  a  line 
by  Philips  and  a  line  by  Tickell  ;  so  that  by  their  aid,  and 
that  of  others,  the  poem  had  been  made  out". 

I  defended  Blackmore's  supposed  lines,  which  have  been 
ridiculed  as  absolute  nonsense  : — 

'A  painted  vest  Prince  Voltiger  had  on. 
Which  from  a  naked  Pict  his  grandsire  won '.' 

'  Johnson  says  of  Blackmore  ( Works,  viii.  36)  that  '  he  is  one  of 
those  men  whose  lot  it  has  been  to  be  much  oftener  mentioned  by 
enem.ies  than  by  friends.' 

=  This  account  Johnson  says  he  had  from  an  eminent  bookseller, 
who  had  it  from  Ambrose  Philips  the  poet.  '  The  relation  of  Philips,' 
he  adds, '  I  suppose  was  true  ;  but  when  all  reasonable,  all  credible  al- 
lowance is  made  for  this  friendly  revision,  the  author  will  still  retain 
an  ample  dividend  of  praise.  .  .  .  Correction  seldom  effects  more  than 
the  suppression  of  faults  :  a  happy  line,  or  a  single  elegance,  may  per- 
haps be  added,  but  of  a  large  work  the  general  character  must  always 
remain.'      Works,  \\\\.  J^\. 

^  An  acute  correspondent  of  the  European  Magazine,  April,  1792, 
has  completely  exposed  a  mistake  which  has  been  unaccountably  fre- 
quent in  ascribing  these  lines  to  Blackmore,  notwithstanding  that  Sir 
Richard  Steele,  in  that  very  popular  work,  TJic  Spectator,  mentions 
them  as  written  by  the  Authour  of  The  British  Princes,  the  Honour- 
able Edward  Howard.     The  correspondent  above  mentioned,  shews 
this  mistake  to  be  so  inveterate,  that  not  only  /  defended  the  lines  as 
Blackmore's,  in  the  presence  of  Dr.  Johnson,  without  any  contradic- 
tion or  doubt  of  their  authenticity,  but  that  the  Reverend  Mr.  Whita- 
ker  has  asserted  in  print,  that  he  understands  they  were  suppressed  in 
the  late  edition  or  editions  of  Blackmore.     '  After  all,  (says  this  intel- 
ligent writer,)  it  is  not  unworthy  of  particular  observation,  that  these 
lines  so  often  quoted  do  not  exist  either  in  Blackmore  or  Howard.'    In 
The  British  Princes,  8vo.  1669,  now  before  me,  p.  96,  they  stand  thus : — • 
'  A  vest  as  admired  Voltiger  had  on, 
Which,  from  this  Island's  foes,  his  grandsire  won. 
Whose  artful  colour  pass'd  the  Tyrian  dye, 
Oblig'd  to  triumph  in  this  legacy.' 

I  maintained 


Aetat.  60.]       Johnson  a  gooci-humoured  man.  125 

I  maintained  it  to  be  a  poetical  conceit.  A  Pict  being 
painted,  if  he  is  slain  in  battle,  and  a  vest  is  made  of  his 
skin,  it  is  a  painted  vest  won  from  him,  though  he  was 
naked '. 

Johnson  spoke  unfavourably  of  a  certain  pretty  volumi- 
nous authour,  saying, '  He  used  to  write  anonymous  books, 
and  then  other  books  commending  those  books,  in  which 
there  was  something  of  rascality.' 

I  whispered  him, '  Well,  Sir,  you  are  now  in  good  humour.' 
JOHXSOX.  '  Yes,  Sir.'  I  was  going  to  leave  him,  and  had 
got  as  far  as  the  staircase.  He  stopped  me,  and  smiling, 
said,  'Get  you  gone  in;'  a  curious  mode  of  inviting  me  to 
stay,  which  I  accordingly  did  for  some  time  longer. 

This  little  incidental  quarrel  and  reconciliation,  which, 
perhaps,  I  may  be  thought  to  have  detailed  too  minutely, 
must  be  esteemed  as  one  of  many  proofs  which  his  friends 
had,  that  though  he  might  be  charged  with  bad  Juunour  at 
times,  he  was  always  a  good-natured  man  ;  and  I  have  heard 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  °,  a  nice  and  delicate  observer  of  man- 
ners, particularly  remark,  that  when  upon  any  occasion  John- 
son had  been  rough  to  any  person  in  company,  he  took  the 
first   opportunity  of   reconciliation,  by  drinking  to  him,  or 

It  is  probable,  I  think,  that  some  wag,  in  order  to  make  Howard  still 
more  ridiculous  than  he  really  was,  has  formed  the  couplet  as  it  now 
circulates.  Boswell.  Swift  in  his  Poetry :  A  Rhapsody,  thus  joins 
Howard  and  Blackmore  together  : — 

'  Remains  a  difficulty  still. 
To  purchase  fame  by  writing  ill. 
From  Flecknoe  down  to  Howard's  time 
How  few  have  reached  the  low  sublime ! 
For  when  our  high-born  Howard  died, 
Blackmore  alone  his  place  supplied.' 

Swift's  rFt;r/'^  (1803),  xi.  296. 
'  Boswell  seems  to  have  borrowed  the  notion  from  The  Spectator, 
No.  43,  where  Steele,  after  saying  that  the  poet  blundered  because  he 
was  '  viv^acious  as  well  as  stupid,'  continues  : — '  A  fool  of  a  colder  con- 
stitution would  have  staid  to  have  flayed  the  Pict,  and  made  buff  of 
his  skin  for  the  wearing  of  the  conqueror.' 
'  See  a7tte,  ii.  1 1 5,  note. 

addressing 


126  On  Marriage.  [a.d.  1769, 

addressing  his  discourse  to  him ' ;  but  if  he  found  his  dignified 
indirect  overtures  sullenly  neglected,  he  was  quite  indiffer- 
ent, and  considered  himself  as  having  done  all  that  he  ought 
to  do,  and  the  other  as  now  in  the  w' rong. 

Being  to  set  out  for  Scotland  on  the  loth  of  November, 
I  wrote  to  him  at  Streatham,  begging  that  he  would  meet 
me  in  tovv-n  on  the  9th  ;  but  if  this  should  be  very  incon- 
venient to  him,  I  would  go  thither.  His  answer  w^as  as 
follows : — 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  Upon  balancing  the  inconveniences  of  both  parties,  I  find  it 
will  less  incommode  you  to  spend  your  night  here,  than  me  to 
come  to  town.  I  wish  to  see  you,  and  am  ordered  by  the  lady  of 
this  house  to  invite  you  hither.  Whether  you  can  come  or  not,  I 
shall  not  have  any  occasion  of  writing  to  you  again  before  your 
marriage,  and  therefore  tell  you  now,  that  with  great  sincerity  I 
wish  you  happiness. 

'  I  am,  dear  Sir, 
'  Your  most  affectionate  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'Nov.  9,  1769.' 

'  Mrs.  Piozzi  {Anec.  p.  97)  tells  how  one  day  at  Streatham  '  when  he 
was  musing  over  the  fire,  a  young  gentleman  called  to  him  suddenly, 
and  I  suppose  he  thought  disrespectfully,  in  these  words  : — "  Mr.  John- 
son, would  you  advise  me  to  marry?"  "I  would  advise  no  man  to 
marrj'.  Sir,"  returns  for  answer  in  a  very  angry  tone  Dr.  Johnson, 
"who  is  not  likely  to  propagate  understanding,"  and  so  left  the  room. 
Our  companion  looked  confounded,  and  I  believe  had  scarce  recov- 
ered the  consciousness  of  his  own  existence,  when  Johnson  came 
back,  and  drawing  his  chair  among  us,  w^ith  altered  looks  and  a  soft- 
ened voice,  joined  in  the  general  chat,  insensibly  led  the  conversation 
to  the  subject  of  marriage,  where  he  laid  himself  out  in  a  dissertation 
so  useful,  so  elegant,  so  founded  on  the  true  knowledge  of  human  life, 
and  so  adorned  with  beauty  of  sentiment,  that  no  one  ever  recollected 
the  offence  except  to  rejoice  in  its  consequences.'  This  'young  gen- 
tleman,' according  to  Mr.  Hayward  (Mrs.  Piozzi's  Aufo.  i.  69),  was  Sir 
John  Lade,  the  hero  of  the  ballad  which  Johnson  recited  on  his  death- 
bed. For  other  instances  of  Johnson's  seeking  a  reconciliation,  see 
post,  May  7,  1773,  and  April  12  and  May  8,  1778. 

I  was 


Aetat. 60.]  The  Marriage  Service.  127 


I  was  detained  in  town  till  it  was  too  late  on  the  ninth, 
so  went  to  him  early  on  the  morning  of  the  tenth  of  No- 
vember. '  Now,  (said  he,)  that  you  are  going  to  marry,  do 
not  expect  more  from  life,  than  life  will  afford.  You  may 
often  find  yourself  out  of  humour,  and  you  may  often  think 
your  wife  not  studious  enough  to  please  you  ;  and  yet  you 
may  have  reason  to  consider  yourself  as  upon  the  whole 
very  happily  married.' 

Talking  of  marriage  in  general,  he  observed,  'Our  marriage 
service  is  too  refined.  It  is  calculated  only  for  the  best  kind 
of  marriages ;  whereas,  we  should  have  a  form  for  matches 
of  convenience,  of  which  there  are  many.'  He  agreed  with 
me  that  there  was  no  absolute  necessity  for  having  the  mar- 
riage ceremony  performed  by  a  regular  clergyman,  for  this 
was  not  commanded  in  scripture. 

I  was  volatile  enough  to  repeat  to  him  a  little  epigram- 
matick  song  of  mine,  on  matrimony,  which  Mr.  Garrick  had 
a  few  days  before  procured  to  be  set  to  musick  by  the  very 
ingenious  Mr.  Dibden. 

'A  Matrimonial  Thought. 

'In  the  blithe  days  of  honey-moon, 

With  Kate's  allurements  smitten, 
I  lov'd  her  late,  I  lov'd  her  soon, 

And  call'd  her  dearest  kitten. 
But  now  my  kitten's  grown  a  cat, 

And  cross .  like  other  wives, 
O  !  by  my  soul,  my  honest  Mat, 

I  fear  she  has  nine  lives.' 

My  illustrious  friend  said,  '  It  is  very  well,  Sir;  but  you 
should  not  swear.'  Upon  which  I  altered  '  O !  by  my  soul,' 
to  '  alas,  alas  !' 

He  was  so  good  as  to  accompany  me  to  London,  and  see 
me  into  the  post-chaise  which  was  to  carry  me  on  my  road 
to  Scotland.  And  sure  I  am,  that,  however  inconsiderable 
many  of  the  particulars  recorded  at  this  time  may  appear 
to  some,  they  will  be  esteemed  by  the  best  part  of  my 

readers 


128  The  False  Alarm.  [a.d.  1770, 


readers  as  genuine  traits   of  his  character,  contributing  to- 
gether to  give  a  full,  fair,  and  distinct  view  of  it. 

1770:  /ETAT.  61.] — In  1770  he  published  a  political  pam- 
phlet, entitled  TJie  False  Alarm\  intended  to  justify  the 
conduct  of  ministry  and  their  majority  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  for  having  virtually  assumed  it  as  an  axiom,  that 
the  expulsion  of  a  Member  of  Parliament  was  equivalent  to 
exclusion,  and  thus  having  declared  Colonel  Lutterel  to  be 
duly  elected  for  the  county  of  Middlesex,  notwithstanding 
Mr.  Wilkes  had  a  great  majority  of  votes'.  This  being 
justly  considered  as  a  gross  violation  of  the  right  of  election, 
an  alarm  for  the  constitution  extended  itself  all  over  the 
kingdom.  To  prove  this  alarm  to  be  false,  was  the  pur- 
pose of  Johnson's  pamphlet ;  but  even  his  vast  powers  were 
inadequate  to  cope  with  constitutional  truth  and  reason, 
and  his  argument  failed  of  effect ;  and  the  House  of  Com- 
mons have  since  expunged  the  offensive  resolution  from 
their  Journals  ^  That  the  House  of  Commons  might  have 
expelled  Mr.  Wilkes  repeatedly,  and  as  often  as  he  should 
be  re-chosen,  was  not  denied ;  but  incapacitation  cannot  be 
but  by  an  act  of  the  whole  legislature.     It  was  wonderful  to 

'  '  The  False  Alarm,  his  first  and  favourite  pamphlet,  was  written 
at  our  house  between  eight  o'clock  on  Wednesday  night  and  twelve 
o'clock  on  Thursday  night.  We  read  it  to  Mr.  Thrale  when  he  came 
very  late  home  from  the  House  of  Commons.'  Piozzi's  Anec.^^.  \\. 
See  also  post,  Nov.  26,  1774,  where  Johnson  says  that '  The  Patriot  was 
called  for  by  my  political  friends  on  Friday,  was  written  on  Saturday.' 

^  Wilkes  was  first  elected  member  for  Middlesex  at  the  General 
Election  of  March,  1768.  He  did  not  take  his  seat,  having  been  thrown 
into  prison  before  Parliament  met.  On  Feb.  3,  1769,  he  was  declared 
incapable  of  being  elected,  and  a  new  writ  was  ordered.  On  Feb.  16 
he  was  again  elected,  and  without  opposition.  His  election  was  again 
declared  void.  On  March  16  he  was  a  third  time  elected,  and  without 
opposition.  His  election  was  again  declared  void.  On  April  13  he 
was  a  fourth  time  elected  by  1143  votes  against  296  given  for  Colonel 
Luttrell.  On  the  14th  the  poll  taken  for  him  was  declared  null  and 
void,  and  on  the  15th,  Colonel  Luttrell  was  declared  duly  elected. 
Pari.  Hist.  xvi.  437,  and  Almon's  Wilkes,  iv.  4.     See  post,  Oct.  1 2,  1 779. 

*  The  resolution  of  expulsion  was  carried  on  Feb.  17,  1769.  Pari. 
Hist.  xvi.  577.     It  was  expunged  on  May  3,  1782.     lb.  xxii.  1407. 

see 


Aetat.  61.]     Wilkes  s  expulsion  from  Parliament.        129 

see  how  a  prejudice  in  favour  of  government  in  general,  and 
an  aversion  to  popular  clamour,  could  blind  and  contract 
such  an  understanding  as  Johnson's,  in  this  particular  case; 
yet  the  wit,  the  sarcasm,  the  eloquent  vivacity  which  this 
pamphlet  displayed,  made  it  be  read  with  great  avidity  at 
the  time,  and  it  will  ever  be  read  with  pleasure,  for  the  sake 
of  its  composition.  That  it  endeavoured  to  infuse  a  nar- 
cotick  indifference,  as  to  publick  concerns,  into  the  minds 
of  the  people,  and  that  it  broke  out  sometimes  into  an  ex- 
treme coarseness  of  contemptuous  abuse,  is  but  too  evident. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  omitted,  that  when  the  storm 
•of  his  violence  subsides,  he  takes  a  fair  opportunity  to  pay 
a  grateful  compliment  to  the  King,  who  had  rewarded  his 
merit:  'These  low-born  rulers'  have  endeavoured,  surely 
without  effect,  to  alienate  the  affections  of  the  people  from 
the  only  King  who  for  almost  a  century  has  much  appeared 
to  desire,  or  much  endeavoured  to  deserve  them.'  And, 
'  Every  honest  man  must  lament,  that  the  faction  has  been 
regarded  with  frigid  neutrality  by  the  Tories,  who  being 
long  accustomed  to  signalise  their  principles  by  opposition 
to  the  Court,  do  not  yet  consider,  that  they  have  at  last  a 
King  who  knows  not  the  name  of  party,  and  who  wishes  to 
be  the  common  father  of  all  his  people.' 

To  this  pamphlet,  which  was  at  once  discovered  to  be 
Johnson's,  several  answers  came  out,  in  which,  care  was 
taken  to  remind  the  publick  of  his  former  attacks  upon 
government,  and  of  his  now  being  a  pensioner,  without  al- 
lowing for  the  honourable  terms  upon  which  Johnson's 
pension  was  granted  and  accepted,  or  the  change  of  system 
which  the  British  Court  had  undergone  upon  the  accession 
of  his  present  Majesty  \     He  was,  however,  soothed  in  the 

'  In  the  original  it  is  not  ruh'rs,h\x\.  railcrs.  Johnson's  Works, \'\. 
176. 

^  How  shght  the  change  of  system  was  is  shown  by  a  passage  in 
Forstei's  Goldsfjtztk, 'n.T,^S.  Mr.  Forster  mentions  a  '  memorial  in  fa- 
vour of  the  most  worthless  of  hack-partizans,  Shebbeare,  which  ob- 
tained for  him  his  pension  of  ;/^2oo  a  year.  It  is  signed  by  fifteen 
members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  it  asks  for  a  pension  "  that 
II. — 9  highest 


1 30  Rev.  Mr.  Stockdale.  [a.d.  1770. 

highest  strain  of  panegyrick ',  in  a  poem  called  The  Remon- 
strance, by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Stockdale",  to  whom  he  was,  upon 
many  occasions,  a  kind  protector. 

The  following  admirable  minute  made  by  him  describes 
so  well  his  own  state,  and  that  of  numbers  to  whom  self- 
examination  is  habitual,  that  I  cannot  omit  it : — 

'June  I,  1770.  Every  man  naturally  persuades  himself  that  he 
can  keep  his  resolutions,  nor  is  he  convinced  of  his  imbecility  but 
by  length  of  time  and  frequency  of  experiment  ^     This  opinion  of 

he  may  be  enabled  to  pursue  that  laudable  inclination  which  he  has 
of  manifesting  his  zeal  for  the  service  of  his  Majesty  and  his  Govern- 
ment ;"  in  other  words,  that  a  rascal  shall  be  bribed  to  support  a  cor- 
rupt administration.'  Horace  Walpole,  in  1757  {Letters,  iii.  54),  de- 
scribed Shebbeare  as  one  '  who  made  a  pious  resolution  of  writing 
himself  into  a  place  or  the  pillory,  but  who  miscarried  in  both  views.' 
He  added  in  a  note, '  he  did  write  himself  into  a  pillory  before  the 
conclusion  of  that  reign,  and  into  a  pension  at  the  beginning  of  the 
next,  for  one  and  the  same  kind  of  merit — writing  against  King  Will- 
iam and  the  Revolution.'     See  also  ^r;.r/,  end  of  May,  1781. 

'  Johnson  could  scarcely  be  soothed  by  lines  such  as  the  follow- 
ing :— 

'  Never  wilt  thou  retain  the  hoarded  store, 
In  virtue  affluent,  but  in  metal  poor; 

Great  is  thy  prose ;  great  thy  poetic  strain, 
Yet  to  dull  coxcombs  are  they  great  in  vain.' — pp.  16,  17. 
"^  Stockdale,  who  was  born  in  1736  and  died  in  181 1,  wrote  Memoirs 
of  his  Life — a  long,  dull  book,  but  containing  a  few  interesting  anec- 
dotes of  Johnson.  He  thought  himself,  and  the  world  also,  much  ill- 
used  by  the  publishers,  when  they  passed  him  over  and  chose  John- 
son to  edit  the  Lives  of  the  I^oets.  He  lodged  both  in  Johnson's  Court 
and  in  Bolt  Court,  but  preserved  little  good-will  for  his  neighbour. 
Johnson,  in  the  Life  of  Waller  {lVorks,\\\.  194),  quoting  from  Stock- 
dale's  Life  of  that  poet,  calls  him  '  his  last  ingenious  biographer.' 
I.  D'Israeli  says  that '  the  bookseller  Flexney  complained  that  when- 
ever this  poet  came  to  town,  it  cost  him  ^20.  Flexney  had  been  the 
publisher  of  Churchill's  Works,  and  never  forgetting  the  time  when 
he  published  The  Rosciad,  he  was  speculating  all  his  life  for  another 
Churchill  and  another  quarto  poem.  Stockdale  usually  brought  him 
what  he  wanted,  and  Flexney  found  the  workman,  but  never  the 
work.'     Calamities  of  Authors,  ed.  1812,  ii.  314. 

'  '  I  believe  most  men  may  review  all  the  lives  that  have  passed 

our 


Aetat.61.]     Revision  of  Johnsons  Shakspeare.         131 

our  own  constancy  is  so  prevalent,  that  we  always  despise  him 
who  suffers  his  general  and  settled  purpose  to  be  overpowered 
by  an  occasional  desire.  They,  therefore,  whom  frequent  failures 
have  made  desperate,  cease  to  form  resolutions  ;  and  they  who  are 
become  cunning,  do  not  tell  them.  Those  who  do  not  make  them 
are  very  few,  but  of  their  effect  little  is  perceived  ;  for  scarcely  any 
man  persists  in  a  course  of  life  planned  by  choice,  but  as  he  is  re- 
strained from  deviation  by  some  external  power.  He  who  may  live 
as  he  will,  seldom  lives  long  in  the  observation  of  his  own  rules '.' 

Of  this  year  I  have  obtained  the  following  letters : — 

'To  THE  Reverend  Dr.  Farmer*,  Cambridge. 
'Sir, 

'As  no  man  ought  to  keep  wholly  to  himself  any  possession 
that  may  be  useful  to  the  publick,  I  hope  you  will  not  think  me 
unreasonably  intrusive,  if  I  have  recourse  to  you  for  such  informa- 
tion as  you  are  more  able  to  give  me  than  any  other  man. 

'  In  support  of  an  opinion  which  you  have  already  placed  above 
the  need  of  any  more  support,  Mr.  Steevens,  a  very  ingenious  gen- 
tleman, lately  of  King's  College,  has  collected  an  account  of  all 
the  translations  which  Shakspeare  might  have  seen  and  used. 
He  wishes  his  catalogue  to  be  perfect,  and  therefore  intreats  that 
you  will  favour  him  by  the  insertion  of  such  additions  as  the  ac- 
curacy of  your  inquiries  has  enabled  you  to  make.  To  this  re- 
quest, I  take  the  liberty  of  adding  my  own  solicitation. 

'  We  have  no  immediate  use  for  this  catalogue,  and  therefore  do 
not  desire  that  it  should  interrupt  or  hinder  your  more  important 
employments.     But  it  will  be  kind  to  let  us  know  that  you  receive  it. 

'  I  am,  Sir,  &c. 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  Johnson's-court,  Fleet-street, 
March  21,  1770.' 

within  their  observation  without  remembering  one  efficacious  resolu- 
tion, or  being  able  to  tell  a  single  instance  of  a  course  of  practice  sud- 
denly changed  in  consequence  of  a  change  of  opinion,  or  an  establish- 
ment of  determination.'  Idler,  No.  27.  '  These  sorrowful  meditations 
fastened  upon  Rasselas's  mind  ;  he  passed  four  months  in  resolving 
to  lose  no  more  time  in  idle  resolves.'     Rassclas,<:\\..\v, 

'  Pr.  and  Med.  p.  95  [p.  loi  J.     HoswELL. 

*  See  ante,  i.  426. 

'To 


132  Revision  of  Johnsofis  Shakspeare.     [a.d.  1770. 


'To  THE  Reverend  Mr.  Thomas  Warton. 

'Dear  Sir, 

'The  readiness  with  which  you  were  pleased  to  promise  me 
some  notes  on  Shakspeare,  was  a  new  instance  of  your  friendship. 
I  shall  not  hurry  you ;  but  am  desired  by  Mr.  Steevens,  who  helps 
me  in  this  edition,  to  let  you  know,  that  we  shall  print  the  trage- 
dies first,  and  shall  therefore  want  first  the  notes  which  belong  to 
them.  We  think  not  to  incommode  the  readers  with  a  supplement ; 
and  therefore,  what  we  cannot  put  into  its  proper  place,  will  do  us 
no  good.     We  shall  not  begin  to  print  before  the  end  of  six  weeks, 

perhaps  not  so  soon. 

'  I  am,  (Sec. 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  London,  June  23,  1770.' 

'To  THE  Rev.  Dr.  Joseph  Warton. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  I  am  revising  my  edition  of  Shakspeare,  and  remember  that 
I  formerly  misrepresented  your  opinion  of  Lear.  Be  pleased  to 
write  the  paragraph  as  you  would  have  it,  and  send  it '.  If  you 
have  any  remarks  of  your  own  upon  that  or  any  other  play,  I  shall 
gladly  receive  them. 

'  Make  my  compliments  to  Mrs.  Warton.  I  sometimes  think  of 
wandering  for  a  few  days  to  Winchester,  but  am  apt  to  delay.  I 
am,  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  Sept.  27, 1770.' 

'  To  Mr.  Francis  Barber,  at  Mrs.  Clapp's,  Bishop-stortford, 

Hertfordshire. 

'  Dear  Francis, 

.'I  am  at  last  sat  down  to  write  to  you,  and  should  very  much 

blame  myself  for  having  neglected  you  so  long,  if  I  did  not  impute 

that  and  many  other  failings  to  want  of  health  ^     I  hope  not  to  be 

'  The  passage  remains  unrevised  in  the  second  edition. 

"^  Johnson  had  suffered  greatly  from  rheumatism  this  year,  as  well 
as  from  other  disorders.  He  mentions '  spasms  in  the  stomach  which 
disturbed  me  for  many  yfears,  and  for  two  past  harassed  me  almost  to 
distraction.'  These,  however,  by  means  of  a  strong  remedy,  had  at 
Easter  nearly  ceased.     '  The  pain,'  he  adds, '  harasses  me  much  ;  yet 

so 


Aetat.  Gl.]  Dr.  MaXWeW S   CoLLECTANEA.  1 33 

SO  long  silent  again.  I  am  very  well  satisfied  with  your  progress, 
if  you  can  really  perform  the  exercises  which  you  are  set ;  and  I 
hope  Mr.  Ellis  does  not  suffer  you  to  impose  on  him,  or  on  your- 
self. 

•  Make  my  compliments  to  Mr.  Ellis,  and  to  Mrs.  Clapp,  and  Mr. 
Smith. 

'  Let  me  know  what  English  books  you  read  for  your  entertain- 
ment.    You  can  never  be  wise  unless  you  love  reading. 

'  Do  not  imagine  that  I  shall  forget  or  forsake  you ;  for  if,  when 
I  examine  you,  I  find  that  you  have  not  lost  your  time,  you  shall 
want  no  encouragement  from 

'  Yours  affectionately, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  London,  Sept.  25,  1770.' 

To  THE  Same. 
'  Dear  Francis, 

'  I  hope  you  mind  your  business.  I  design  you  shall  stay 
with  ]SIrs.  Clapp  these  holidays.  If  you  are  invited  out  you  may 
go,  if  Mr.  Ellis  gives  leave.  I  have  ordered  you  some  clothes, 
which  you  will  receive,  I  believe,  next  week.  My  compliments  to 
Mrs,  Clapp  and  to  Mr,  Ellis,  and  Mr.  Smith,  &c. 

'  I  am 

'  Your  affectionate, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  December  7, 1770.' 

During  this  year  there  w^as  a  total  cessation  of  all  corre- 
spondence between  Dr.  Johnson  and  me,  without  any  cold- 
ness on  cither  side,  but  merely  from  procrastination,  con- 
tinued from  day  to  day ;  and  as  I  was  not  in  London,  I 
had  no  opportunity  of  enjoying  his  company  and  recording 
his  conversation.  To  supply  this  blank,  I  shall  present  my 
readers  with  some  Collectanea,  obligingly  furnished  to  me 
by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Maxwell,  of  Falkland,  in  Ireland,  some  time 

many  have  the  disease  perhaps  in  a  much  higher  degree,  with  want 
of  food,  fire,  and  covering,  which  I  find  thus  grievous,  with  all  the 
succours  that  riches  and  kindness  can  buy  and  give.'  (He  was  stay- 
ing at  Mr.  Thralc's.)  Pr.  and  il  fed.  Y)Y>.  92-%.  'Shall  I  ever,'  he  asks 
on  Easter  Day, '  receive  the  Sacrament  with  tranquillity?  Surely  the 
time  will  come.'     Jb.  p.  99. 

assistant 


1 34  Mr.  Grierson.  [a.d.  1770. 

assistant  preacher  at  the  Temple,  and  for  many  years  the 
social  friend  of  Johnson,  who  spoke  of  him  with  a  very 
kind  regard. 

'  My  acquaintance  with  that  great  and  venerable  character  com- 
menced in  the  year  1754.  I  was  introduced  to  him  by  Mr.  Grier- 
son ',  his  Majesty's  printer  at  Dublin,  a  gentleman  of  uncommon 
learning,  and  great  wit  and  vivacity.  Mr.  Grierson  died  in  Ger- 
many, at  the  age  of  twenty-seven.  Dr.  Johnson  highly  respected 
his  abihties,  and  often  observed,  that  he  possessed  more  extensive 
knowledge  than  any  man  of  his  years  he  had  ever  known.  His 
industry  was  equal  to  his  talents ;  and  he  particularly  excelled  in 
ever)'  species  of  philological  learning,  and  was,  perhaps,  the  best 
critick  of  the  age  he  lived  in. 

'  I  must  always  remember  with  gratitude  my  obligation  to  Mr. 
Grierson,  for  the  honour  and  happiness  of  Dr.  Johnson's  acquaint- 
ance and  friendship,  which  continued  uninterrupted  and  undimin- 
ished to  his  death :  a  connection,  that  was  at  once  the  pride  and 
happiness  of  my  life. 

'  What  pity  it  is,  that  so  much  wit  and  good  sense  as  he  contin- 
ually exhibited  in  conversation,  should  perish  unrecorded !  Few 
persons  quitted  his  company  without  perceiving  themselves  wiser 
and  better  than  they  were  before.  On  serious  subjects  he  flashed 
the  most  interesting  conviction  upon  his  auditors ,  and  upon 
lighter  topicks,  you  might  have  supposed — Aibano  imisas  de  monte 
locutas ". 

'  Though  I  can  hope  to  add  but  little  to  the  celebrity  of  so  ex- 
alted a  character,  by  any  communications  I  can  furnish,  yet  out  of 
pure  respect  to  his  memory,  I  will  venture  to  transmit  to  you  some 
anecdotes  concerning  him,  which  fell  under  my  own  observation. 
The  very  miniiticE  of  such  a  character  must  be  interesting,  and  may 
be  compared  to  the  filings  of  diamonds. 

'  In  politicks  he  was  deemed  a  Tory,  but  certainly  was  not  so  in 

'  Son  of  the  learned  Mrs.  Grierson,  who  was  patronised  by  the  late 
Lord  Granville,  and  was  the  editor  of  several  of  the  Classicks.     Bos- 

WELL. 

"^  '  Pontificum  libros,  annosa  volumina  vatum, 

Dictitet  Aibano  Musas  in  monte  locutas.' 

'  Then  swear  transported  that  the  sacred  Nine 
Pronounced  on  Alba's  top  each  hallowed  line.' 

Francis.     Horace,  E/>/s.  II.  i.  26. 

the 


Aetat.  61.]  Johnson  not  a  party  man.  135 

the  obnoxious  or  party  sense  of  the  term ;  for  while  he  asserted 
the  legal  and  salutary  prerogatives  of  the  crown,  he  no  less  respect- 
ed the  constitutional  liberties  of  the  people.  Whiggism,  at  the  time 
of  the  Revolution,  he  said,  was  accompanied  with  certain  princi- 
ples ;  but  latterly,  as  a  mere  party  distinction  under  Walpole  '  and 
the  Pelhams  was  no  better  than  the  politicks  of  stock-jobbers,  and 
the  religion  of  infidels. 

'  He  detested  the  idea  of  governing  by  parliamentary  corruption, 
and  asserted  most  strenuously,  that  a  prince  steadily  and  conspic- 
uously pursuing  the  interests  of  his  people,  could  not  fail  of  par- 
liamentary concurrence.  A  prince  of  ability,  he  contended,  might 
and  should  be  the  directing  soul  and  spirit  of  his  own  administra- 
tion ;  in  short,  his  own  minister,  and  not  the  mere  head  of  a  party : 
and  then,  and  not  till  then,  would  the  royal  dignity  be  sincerely 
respected. 

'  Johnson  seemed  to  think,  that  a  certain  degree  of  crown  influ- 
ence over  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  (not  meaning  a  corrupt  and 
shameful  dependence,)  was  very  salutary,  nay,  even  necessary,  in 
our  mixed  government '.  "  For,  (said  he,)  if  the  members  were  un- 
der no  crown  influence,  and  disqualified  from  receiving  any  grati- 
fication from  Court,  and  resembled,  as  they  possibly  might,  Pym 
and  Haslerig,  and  other  stubborn  and  sturdy  members  of  the  long 
Parliament,  the  wheels  of  government  would  be  totally  obstructed. 
Such  men  would  oppose,  merely  to  shew  their  power,  from  envy, 
jealousy,  and  perversity  of  disposition  ,  and  not  gaining  themselves, 
would  hate  and  oppose  all  who  did  :  not  loving  the  person  of  the 
prince,  and  conceiving  they  owed  him  little  gratitude,  from  the 
mere  spirit  of  insolence  and  contradiction,  they  would  oppose  and 
thwart  him  upon  all  occasions." 

'The  inseparable  imperfection  annexed  to  all  human  govern- 
ments consisted,  he  said,  in  not  being  able  to  create  a  sufiicient 
fund  of  virtue  and  principle  to  carry  the  laws  into  due  and  eft'ectual 
execution.  Wisdom  might  plan,  but  virtue  alone  could  execute. 
And  where  could  sufficient  virtue  be  found  t  A  variety  of  delegated, 
and  often  discretionary,  powers  must  be  entrusted  somewhere ; 
which,  if  not  governed  by  integrity  and  conscience,  would  necessa- 
rily be  abused,  till  at  last  the  constable  would  sell  his  for  a  shilling. 

'This  excellent  person  was  sometimes  charged  with   abetting 

*  See  ante,  i.  152,  where  Boswcll  says  that  'Johnson  afterwards  hon- 
estly acknowledged  the  merit  of  Walpole.' 
'  'i^ft  post,  May  15,  1783. 

slavish 


136  Johnson  s  mode  of  life.  [a.d.  1770. 

slavish  and  arbitrary  principles  of  government.  Nothing  in  my 
opinion  could  be  a  grosser  calumny  and  misrepresentation ;  for 
how  can  it  be  rationally  supposed,  that  he  should  adopt  such  per- 
nicious and  absurd  opinions,  who  supported  his  philosophical  char- 
acter with  so  much  dignity,  was  extremely  jealous  of  his  personal 
liberty  and  independence,  and  could  not  brook  the  smallest  ap- 
pearance of  neglect  or  insult,  even  from  the  highest  personages  ? 

'  Eut  let  us  view  him  in  some  instances  of  more  familiar  life. 

'  His  general  mode  of  life,  during  my  acquaintance,  seemed  to 
be  pretty  uniform.  About  twelve  o'clock  I  commonly  visited  him, 
and  frequently  found  him  in  bed,  or  declaiming  over  his  tea,  which 
he  drank  very  plentifully.  He  generally  had  a  levee  of  morning 
visitors,  chiefly  men  of  letters  ' ;  Hawkesworth,  Goldsmith,  Murphy, 
Langton,  Steevens,  Beauclerk,  &:c.  &c.,  and  sometimes  learned  la- 
dies, particularly  I  remember  a  French  lady^  of  wit  and  fashion 
doing  him  the  honour  of  a  visit.  He  seemed  to  me  to  be  consid- 
ered as  a  kind  of  publick  oracle,  whom  every  body  thought  they 
had  a  right  to  visit  and  consult  ^ ;  and  doubtless  they  were  well  re- 
warded. I  never  could  discover  how  he  found  time  for  his  com- 
positions \  He  declaimed  all  the  morning,  then  went  to  dinner  at 
a  tavern,  where  he  commonly  staid  late,  and  then  drank  his  tea  at 

*  '  His  acquaintance  was  sought  by  persons  of  the  first  eminence  in 
literature ;  and  his  house,  in  respect  of  the  conversations  there,  be- 
came an  academy.'  Hawkins's  Johnson,  p.  329.  See  ante,  i.  287,  405, 
note  3. 

^  Probably  Madame  de  Boufflers.     See  post,  under  November  12, 

1775-  ■ 

'  '  To  talk  in  publick,  to  think  in  solitude,  to  read  and  hear,  to  in- 
quire and  answer  inquiries,  is  the  business  of  a  scholar.'  Rassclas,  ch. 
viii.  Miss  Burney  mentions  an  amusing  instance  of  a  consultation  by 
letter.  '  The  letter  was  dated  from  the  Orkneys,  and  cost  Dr.  John- 
son eighteen  pence.  The  writer,  a  clergyman,  says  he  labours  under 
a  most  peculiar  misfortune,  for  which  he  can  give  no  account,  and 
which  is  that,  though  he  very  often  writes  letters  to  his  friends  and 
others,  he  never  gets  any  answers.  He  entreats,  therefore,  that  Dr. 
Johnson  will  take  this  into  consideration,  and  explain  to  him  to  what 
so  strange  a  thing  may  be  attributed.'     Mme.  D'Arblay's  Diary,  ii.  96. 

*  '  How  he  [Swift]  spent  the  rest  of  his  time,  and  how  he  employed 
his  hours  of  study,  has  been  inquired  with  hopeless  curiosity.  For 
who  can  give  an  account  of  another's  studies  ?  Swift  was  not  likely 
to  admit  any  to  his  privacies,  or  to  impart  a  minute  account  of  his 
business  or  his  leisure.'     Johnson's  Works,  viii.  208. 

some 


Aetat.  61.]  JoJinsou  s  tiiode  of  life.  137 

some  friend's  house,  over  which  he  loitered  a  great  while,  but  sel- 
dom took  supper.  I  fancy  he  must  have  read  and  wrote  chiefly  in 
the  night,  for  I  can  scarcely  recollect  that  he  ever  refused  going 
with  me  to  a  tavern,  and  he  often  went  to  Ranelagh ',  which  he 
deemed  a  place  of  innocent  recreation. 

'  He  frequently  gave  all  the  silver  in  his  pocket  to  the  poor,  who 
watched  him,  between  his  house  and  the  tavern  where  he  dined  ^ 
He  walked  the  streets  at  all  hours,  and  said  he  was  never  robbed ', 
for  the  rogues  knew  he  had  little  money,  nor  had  the  appearance 
of  having  much. 

'  Though  the  most  accessible  and  communicative  man  alive  ;  yet 
when  he  suspected  he  was  invited  to  be  exhibited,  he  constantly 
spurned  the  invitation. 

'  Two  young  women  from  Staffordshire  visited  him  when  I  was 
present,  to  consult  him  on  the  subject  of  Methodism,  to  which 
they  were  inclined.  "  Come,  (said  he,)  j'^ou  pretty  fools,  dine  with 
Maxwell  and  me  at  the  Mitre,  and  we  will  talk  over  that  subject ;" 
which  they  did,  and  after  dinner  he  took  one  of  them  upon  his 
knee,  and  fondled  her  for  half  an  hour  together. 

'  Upon  a  visit  to  me  at  a  country  lodging  near  Twickenham,  he 
asked  what  sort  of  society  I  had  there.  I  told  him,  but  indifferent ; 
as  they  chiefly  consisted  of  opulent  traders,  retired  from  business. 

'  See  posf,  March  31,  1772. 

■  'He  loved  the  poor,'  says  Mrs.  Piozzi  (A  nee.  p.  84),'  as  I  never 
yet  saw  any  one  else  do,  with  an  earnest  desire  to  make  them  happy. 
"What  signifies,"  says  some  one,  "giving  half-pence  to  common  beg- 
gars ?  they  only  lay  it  out  in  gin  or  tobacco."  "  And  why  should  they 
be  denied  such  sweeteners  of  their  existence .''"  says  Johnson.'  The 
harm  done  by  this  indiscriminate  charity  had  been  pointed  out  by 
Fielding  in  his  Coven/  Garden  Journal  for  June  2,  1752.     He  took  as 

the  motto  for  the  paper  : 

'  O  bone,  no  te 

Frustrere,  insanis  et  tu  ;' 
which  he  translates, 

'My  good  friend,  do  not  deceive  thyself;  for  with  all  thy  charity 
thou  also  art  a  silly  fellow.'  '  Giving  our  money  to  common  beggars,' 
he  describes  as  'a  kind  of  bounty  that  is  a  crime  against  the  public' 
Fielding's  Works,  x. ']'],  ed.  1806.  Johnson  once  allowed  [post,  1780,  in 
Mr.  Langton's  Collection^  that  '  one  might  give  away  ^500  a  year  to 
those  that  importune  in  the  streets,  and  not  do  any  good.'  See  also 
post,  Oct.  10,  1779. 

'  He  was  once  attacked,  though  whether  by  robbers  is  not  made 
clear.     See /t'.yA  under  Feb.  7,  1775. 

He 


138  London.  [a.d.  1770. 

He  said,  he  never  much  Hked  that  class  of  people ;  "  For,  Sir,  (said 
he,)  they  have  lost  the  civility  of  tradesmen,  without  acquiring  the 
manners  of  gentlemen  '." 

'  Johnson  was  much  attached  to  London  :  he  observed,  that  a 
man  stored  his  mind  better  there,  than  any  where  else ;  and  that 
in  remote  situations  a  man's  body  might  be  feasted,  but  his  mind 
was  starved,  and  his  faculties  apt  to  degenerate,  from  want  of  ex- 
ercise and  competition.  No  place,  (he  said,)  cured  a  man's  vanity 
or  arrogance  so  well  as  London  ;  for  as  no  man  was  either  great 
or  good  per  se,  but  as  compared  with  others  not  so  good  or  great, 
he  was  sure  to  find  in  the  metropolis  many  his  equals,  and  some 
his  superiours.  He  observed,  that  a  man  in  London  was  in  less 
danger  of  falling  in  love  indiscreetly,  than  any  where  else ;  for 
there  the  difficulty  of  deciding  between  the  conflicting  pretensions 
of  a  vast  variety  of  objects,  kept  him  safe.  He  told  me,  that  he 
had  frequently  been  offered  country  preferment,  if  he  would  con- 
sent to  take  orders " ;  but  he  could  not  leave  the  improved  society 
of  the  capital,  or  consent  to  exchange  the  exhilarating  joys  and 
splendid  decorations  of  publick  life,  for  the  obscurity,  insipidity, 
and  uniformity  of  remote  situations, 

'  Speaking  of  Mr.  Harte  ^  Canon  of  Windsor,  and  writer  of  7Vie 
History  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  he  much  commended  him  as  a 
scholar,  and  a  man  of  the  most  companionable  talents  he  had  ever 
known.  He  said,  the  defects  in  his  history  proceeded  not  from 
imbecility,  but  from  foppery. 

'  He  loved,  he  said,  the  old  black  letter  books ;  they  were  rich 
in  matter,  though  their  style  was  inelegant;  wonderfully  so,  con- 
sidering how  conversant  the  writers  were  with  the  best  models  of 
antiquity. 

'  Burton's  Anatomy  of  Melancholy^  he  said,  was  the  only  book 
that  ever  took  him  out  of  bed  two  hours  sooner  than  he  wished  to 
rise. 

*He  frequently  exhorted  me  to  set  about  writing  a  History  of 
Ireland,  and  archly  remarked,  there  had  been   some  good  Irish 

'  Perhaps  it  was  this  class  of  people  which  is  described  in  the  fol- 
lowing passage : — '  It  was  never  against  people  of  coarse  life  that  his 
contempt  was  expressed,  while  poverty  of  sentiment  in  men  who  con- 
sidered themselves  to  be  company /(^r  the  parlour,  as  he  called  it,  was 
what  he  would  not  bear.'     Piozzi's  Anec.  215. 

'  See  ante,  i.  370,  for  one  such  offer. 

'  See  a}ite,  i.  188,  note  i,  and/t>j/,  March  30,  1781. 

writers. 


Aetat.  61.]  Ireland.  139 

writers,  and  that  one  Irishman  might  at  least  aspire  to  be  equal  to 
another.  He  had  great  compassion  for  the  miseries  and  distresses 
of  the  Irish  nation,  particularly  the  Papists ;  and  severely  repro- 
bated the  barbarous  debilitating  policy  of  the  British  government, 
which,  he  said,  was  the  most  detestable  mode  of  persecution.  To 
a  gentleman,  who  hinted  such  policy  might  be  necessary  to  sup- 
port the  authority  of  the  English  government,  he  replied  by  say- 
ing. "  Let  the  authority  of  the  English  government  perish,  rather 
than  be  maintained  by  iniquity.  Better  would  it  be  to  restrain  the 
turbulence  of  the  natives  by  the  authority  of  the  sword,  and  to 
make  them  amenable  to  law  and  justice  by  an  effectual  and  vigor- 
ous police,  than  to  grind  them  to  powder  by  all  manner  of  disabili- 
ties and  incapacities.  Better,  (said  he,)  to  hang  or  drown  people 
at  once,  than  by  an  unrelenting  persecution  to  beggar  and  starve 
them  '."  The  moderation  and  humanity  of  the  present  times  have, 
in  some  measure,  justified  the  wisdom  of  his  observations. 

'  Dr.  Johnson  was  often  accused  of  prejudices,  nay,  antipathy, 
with  regard  to  the  natives  of  Scotland.  Surely,  so  illiberal  a  prej- 
udice never  entered  his  mind  :  and  it  is  well  known,  many  natives 
of  that  respectable  country  possessed  a  large  share  in  his  esteem ; 
nor  were  any  of  them  ever  e.xcluded  from  his  good  offices,  as  far 
as  opportunity  permitted.  True  it  is,  he  considered  the  Scotch, 
nationally,  as  a  crafty,  designing  people,  eagerly  attentive  to  their 
own  interest,  and  too  apt  to  overlook  the  claims  and  pretentions 

'  Dr.  T.  Campbell,  in  his  Survey  of  the  South  of  Ireland,  ed.  1777 
{post,  April  5,  1775),  says  : — '  By  one  law  of  the  penal  code,  if  a  Papist 
have  a  horse  worth  fifty,  or  five  hundred  pounds,  a  Protestant  may 
become  the  purchaser  upon  paying  him  down  five.  By  another  of 
the  same  code,  a  son  may  say  to  his  father,  "  Sir,  if  you  don't  give  me 
what  money  I  want,  I'll  turn  discoverer,  and  in  spite  of  you  and  my 
elder  brother  too,  on  whom  at  marriage  you  settled  your  estate, 
I  shall  become  heir,"'  p.  251.  Father  O'Leary,  in  his  Remarks  on 
Wesley  s  Letter,  published  in  1780  {post,  Hebrides,  Aug.  15,  1773),  says 
(p.  41) : — '  He  has  seen  the  venerable  matron,  after  twenty-four  years' 
marriage,  banished  from  the  perjured  husband's  house,  though  it  was 
proved  in  open  court  that  for  six  months  before  his  marriage  he  went 
to  mass.  But  the  law  requires  that  he  should  be  a  year  and  a  day  of 
the  same  religion.'  Burke  wrote  in  1792:  'The  Castle  [the  govern- 
ment in  Dublin]  considers  the  out-lawry  for  what  at  least  I  look  on 
as  such)  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people  as  an  unalterable  ma.xim  in 
the  government  of  Ireland.'  Burke's  Corres.  iii.  378.  Sec  post,  ii.  150, 
and  May  7,  1773,  and  Oct.  12,  1779. 

of 


140  Opmions  of  Johnson.  [a. d.  1770. 

of  other  people.  "  While  they  confine  their  benevolence,  in  a  man- 
ner, exclusively  to  those  of  their  own  country,  they  expect  to  share 
in  the  good  offices  of  other  people.  Now,  (said  Johnson,)  this  prin- 
ciple is  either  right  or  wrong ;  if  right,  we  should  do  well  to  imitate 
such  conduct ;  if  wrong,  we  cannot  too  much  detest  it '." 

'  Being  solicited  to  compose  a  funeral  sermon  for  the  daughter 
of  a  tradesman,  he  naturally  enquired  into  the  character  of  the 
deceased  ;  and  being  told  she  was  remarkable  for  her  humility  and 
condescension  to  inferiours,  he  observed,  that  those  were  very 
laudable  qualities,  but  it  might  not  be  so  easy  to  discover  who  the 
lady's  inferiours  were. 

'  Of  a  certain  player  '■'  he  remarked,  that  his  conversation  usually 
threatened  and  announced  more  than  it  performed ;  that  he  fed 
you  with  a  continual  renovation  of  hope,  to  end  in  a  constant  suc- 
cession of  disappointment. 

'  When  exasperated  by  contradiction,  he  was  apt  to  treat  his  op- 
ponents with  too  much  acrimony  :  as,  "  Sir,  you  don't  see  your  way 
through  that  question  :" — "  Sir,  you  talk  the  language  of  ignorance," 
On  my  observing  to  him  that  a  certain  gentleman  had  remained 
silent  the  whole  evening,  in  the  midst  of  a  very  brilliant  and  learned 
society,  "  Sir,  (said  he,)  the  conversation  overflowed,  and  drowned 
him." 

'  His  philosophy,  though  austere  and  solemn,  was  by  no  means 
morose  and  cynical,  and  never  blunted  the  laudable  sensibilities  of 
his  character,  or  exempted  him  from  the  influence  of  the  tender 
passions.  Want  of  tenderness,  he  always  alledged,  was  want  of 
parts,  and  was  no  less  a  proof  of  stupidity  than  depravity. 

'  Speaking  of  Mr.  Hanway,  who  published  A71  Eight  Days''  Journey 
from  Lo7idon  to  Portsmouth,  "  Jonas,  (said  he,)  acquired  some  repu- 
tation by  travelling  abroad',  but  lost  it  all  by  travelling  at  home'." 

'Of  the  passion  of  love  he  remarked,  that  its  violence  and  ill 
effects  were  much  exaggerated ;  for  who  knows  any  real  sufferings 
on  that  head,  more  than  from  the  exorbitancy  of  any  other  passion  ? 


'  S&Q  post,  just  before  Feb.  18,  1775. 

"^  '  Of  Sheridan's  writings  on  elocution,  Johnson  said,  they  were  a 
continual  renovation  of  hope,  and  an  unvaried  succession  of  disap- 
pointments.'   Johnson's  Works  (1787),  xi.  197.    See  post,  May  17,  1783. 

^  In  1753,  Jonas  Hanway  published  his  Travels  to  Persia. 

*  '  Though  his  journey  was  completed  in  eight  days  he  gave  a  re- 
lation of  it  in  two  octavo  volumes.'  Hawkins's y6'//«i'(9«,  p.  352.  See 
ante,  i.  362. 

'He 


Aetat.  61.]  Methodist  preaching.  141 

'  He  much  commended  Law's  Serious  Call,  which  he  said  was 
the  finest  piece  of  hortatory  theology  in  any  language '.  "  Law, 
(said  he,)  fell  latterly  into  the  reveries  of  Jacob  Behmen^,  whom 
Law  alledged  to  have  been  somewhat  in  the  same  state  with  St. 
Paul,  and  to  have  seen  unutterable  things'^.  Were  it  even  so,  (said 
Johnson,)  Jacob  would  have  resembled  St.  Paul  still  more,  by  not 
attempting  to  utter  them." 

'  He  observed,  that  the  established  clergy  in  general  did  not 
preach  plain  enough  ;  and  that  polished  periods  and  glittering 
sentences  flew  over  the  heads  of  the  common  people,  without  any 
impression  upon  their  hearts.  Something  might  be  necessary,  he 
observed,  to  excite  the  affections  of  the  common  people,  who  were 
sunk  in  languor  and  lethargy,  and  therefore  he  supposed  that  the 
new  concomitants  of  methodism  might  probably  produce  so  desir- 
able an  effect  \  The  mind,  like  the  body,  he  observed,  delighted 
in   change   and  novelty,  and  even  in  religion  itself,  courted  new 

'  See  ante,  i.  78,  and  post,  June  9,  1784,  note,  where  he  varies  the  epi- 
thet, calling  it '  the  best  piece  oi  parcnetic  divinity.' 

'  '"  I  taught  myself,"  Law  tells  us,  "the  high  Dutch  language,  on 
purpose  to  know  the  original  words  of  the  blessed  Jacob." '  Over- 
ton's Life  of  Law,  p.  i8i.  Behmen,*or  Bohme,  the  mystic  shoemaker 
of  Gorlitz,  was  born  in  1575,  and  died  in  1624.  'His  books  may  not 
hold  at  all  honourable  places  in  libraries ;  his  name  may  be  ridicu- 
lous. But  he  was  a  generative  thinker.  What  he  knew  he  knew  for 
himself.  It  was  not  transmitted  to  him,  but  fought  for.'  F.  D.  Mau- 
rice's Moral  and  Mcta.  Phil.  ii.  325.     Of  Hudibras's  squire,  Ralph,  it 

was  said  : 

'  He  Anthroposophus,  and  Floud, 

And  Jacob  Behmen  understood.' 

Hudibras,  I.  i.  541. 

Wesley  {foiirtial,  i.  359)  writes  of  Behmen's  Mysteriu7n  Magnuvt,  '  I 
can  and  must  say  thus  much  (and  that  with  as  full  evidence  as  I  can 
say  two  and  two  make  four)  it  is  most  sublime  nonsense,  inimitable 
bombast,  fustian  not  to  be  paralleled.' 

'  '  He  heard  unspeakable  words,  which  it  is  not  lawful  for  a  man  to 
utter.'     2  Corinthians,  xii.  4. 

*  See  a7tte,  i.  530'  In  Httniphry  Clinker,  in  the  Letter  of  June  11, 
the  turnkey  of  Clerkenwell  Prison  thus  speaks  of  a  Methodist : — '  I 
don't  care  if  the  devil  had  him;  here  has  been  nothing  but  canting 
and  praying  since  the  fellow  entered  the  place.  Rabbit  him  !  the  tap 
will  be  rviined — we  han't  sold  a  cask  of  beer  nor  a  dozen  of  wine,  since 
he  paid  his  garnish—  the  gentlemen  get  drunk  with  nothing  but  your 
damned  religion.' 

appearances 


142  Blank-verse.  [a. d.  1770. 

appearances  and  modifications.  Whatever  might  be  thought  of 
some  methodist  teachers,  he  said,  he  could  scarcely  doubt  the  sin- 
cerity of  that  man,  who  travelled  nine  hundred  miles  in  a  month, 
and  preached  twelve  times  a  week ;  for  no  adequate  reward,  mere- 
ly temporal,  could  be  given  for  such  indefatigable  labour'. 

'Of  Dr.  Priestley's  theological  works,  he  remarked,  that  they 
tended  to  unsettle  every  thing,  and  yet  settled  nothing. 

'  He  was  much  affected  by  the  death  of  his  mother,  and  wrote 
to  me  to  come  and  assist  him  to  compose  his  mind,  which  indeed 
I  found  extremely  agitated.  He  lamented  that  all  serious  and  re- 
ligious conversation  was  banished  from  the  society  of  men,  and  yet 
great  advantages  might  be  derived  from  it.  All  acknowledged,  he 
said,  what  hardly  any  body  practised,  the  obligation  we  were  under 
of  making  the  concerns  of  eternity  the  governing  principles  of  our 
lives.  Every  man,  he  observed,  at  last  wishes  for  retreat :  he  sees 
his  expectations  frustrated  in  the  world,  and  begins  to  wean  him- 
self from  it,  and  to  prepare  for  everlasting  separation. 

'  He  observed,  that  the  influence  of  London  now  extended  every 
where,  and  that  from  all  manner  of  communication  being  opened, 
there  shortly  would  be  no  remains  of  the  ancient  simplicity,  or 
places  of  cheap  retreat  to  be  found. 

'  He  was  no  admirer  of  blank-verse,  and  said  it  always  failed, 
unless  sustained  by  the  dignity  of  the  subject.  In  blank-verse,  he 
said,  the  language  suffered  more  distortion,  to  keep  it  out  of  prose, 

'  '  John  Wesley  probably  paid  more  for  turnpikes  than  any  other 
man  in  England,  for  no  other  person  travelled  so  much.'  Southey's 
Wesley,  i.  407.  '  He  tells  us  himself,  that  he  preached  about  800  ser- 
mons in  a  year.'  lb.  ii.  532.  In  one  of  hxs  Appeals  to  Men  of  Reason 
and  Religion,  he  asks  : — '  Can  you  bear  the  summer  sun  to  beat  upon 
your  naked  head  ?  Can  you  suffer  the  wintry  rain  or  wind,  from  what- 
ever quarter  it  blows  }  Are  you  able  to  stand  in  the  open  air,  without 
any  covering  or  defence,  when  God  casteth  abroad  his  snow  like  wool, 
or  scattereth  his  hoar-frost  like  ashes .''  And  yet  these  are  some  of 
the  smallest  inconveniences  which  accompany  field-preaching.  For 
beyond  all  these,  are  the  contradiction  of  sinners,  the  scoffs  both  of 
the  great  vulgar  and  the  small ;  contempt  and  reproach  of  every  kind 
— often  more  than  verbal  affronts-^stupid,  brutal  violence,  sometimes 
to  the  hazard  of  health,  or  limbs,  or  life.  Brethren,  do  you  envy  us 
this  honour  }  What,  I  pray  you,  would  buy  you  to  be  a  field-preacher? 
Or  what,  think  you,  could  induce  any  man  of  common  sense  to  con- 
tinue therein  one  year,  unless  he  had  a  full  conviction  in  himself  that 
it  was  the  will  of  God  concerning  him  ?'     Southey's  IVesltj,  i.  405. 

than 


Aetat.  Gi.]   Johusou  s  opinion  of  the  English  nation.    143 

than  any  inconvenience  or  limitation  to  be  apprehended  from  the 
shackles  and  circumspection  of  rhyme '. 

'  He  reproved  me  once  for  saying  grace  without  mention  of  the 
name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  hoped  in  future  I  would  be 
more  mindful  of  the  apostolical  injunction  '^ 

'  He  refused  to  go  out  of  a  room  before  me  at  Mr.  Langton's 
house,  saying,  he  hoped  he  knew  his  rank  better  than  to  presume 
to  take  place  of  a  Doctor  in  Divinity.  I  mention  such  little  anec- 
dotes, merely  to  shew  the  peculiar  turn  and  habit  of  his  mind. 

'  He  used  frequently  to  observe,  that  there  was  more  to  be  en- 
dured than  enjoyed,  in  the  general  condition  of  human  life ;  and 
frequently  quoted  those  lines  of  Dryden  : 

"  Strange  cozenage !  none  would  live  past  years  again, 
Yet  all  hope  pleasure  from  what  still  remain  \" 

For  his  part,  he  said,  he  never  passed  that  week  in  his  life  which  he 
would  wish  to  repeat,  were  an  angel  to  make  the  proposal  to  him. 

'  He  was  of  opinion,  that  the  English  nation  cultivated  both  their 
soil  and  their  reason  better  than  any  other  people  :  but  admitted 
that  the  French,  though  not  the  highest,  perhaps,  in  any  depart- 
ment of  literature,  yet  in  every  department  were  very  high\  In- 
tellectual pre-eminence,  he  observed,  was  the  highest  superiority; 
and  that  every  nation  derived  their  highest  reputation  from  the 
splendour  and  dignity  of  their  writers  ^  Voltaire,  he  said,  was  a 
good  narrator,  and  that  his  principal  merit  consisted  in  a  happy 
selection  and  arrangement  of  circumstances. 

'  Speaking  of  the  French  novels,  compared  with  Richardson's, 
he  said,  they  might  be  pretty  baubles,  but  a  wren  was  not  an  eagle. 

'  Stockdale  reported  to  Johnson,  that  Pope  had  told  Lyttelton  that 
the  reason  why  he  had  not  translated  Homer  into  blank  verse  was 
'that  he  could  translate  it  more  easily  into  rhyme.  "Sir,"  replied 
Johnson,  "  when  Pope  said  that,  he  knew  that  he  lied."  '  Stockdale 's 
Memoirs/\\.  w.  In  X\\(t  Life  0/ So/nc'r7'i7c,  Johnson  says: — '  If  blank- 
verse  be  not  tumid  and  gorgeous,  it  is  crippled  prose.'  Johnson's 
Works,  viii.  95.     Sqg.  post,  beginning  of  1781. 

*  Ep/icsz'ans,  v.  20. 

^  In  the  original — 

'  Yet  all  hope  pleasure  in  what  yet  remain.' 
See /ftfA  June  12,1784. 

*  See  posf,  under  Aug.  29,  1783,  and  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Oct.  14,  1773. 
'  '  The  chief  glory  of  every  people  arises  from  its  authours.'    John- 
son's Works,  v.  49. 

'In 


144  -^  conversation  in  Latin.  [a.d.  1770. 

'  In  a  Latin  conversation  with  the  Pere  Boscovitch,  at  the  house 
of  Mrs.  Chohnondeley,  I  heard  him  maintain  the  superiority  of  Sir 
Isaac  Newton  over  all  foreign  philosophers',  with  a  dignity  and 
eloquence  that  surprized  that  learned  foreigner ".  It  being  observed 
to  him,  that  a  rage  for  every  thing  English  prevailed  much  in  France 
after  Lord  Chatham's  glorious  war,  he  said,  he  did  not  wonder  at 
it,  for  that  we  had  drubbed  those  fellows  into  a  proper  reverence 
for  us,  and  that  their  national  petulance  required  periodical  chas- 
tisement. 

'  Lord  Lyttelton's  Dialogues,  he  deemed  a  nugatory  performance. 
"That  man,  (said  he,)  sat  down  to  write  a  book,  to  tell  the  world 
what  the  world  had  all  his  life  been  telling  him^" 

'  Somebody  observing  that  the  Scotch  Highlanders,  in  the  year 
1745,  had  made  surprizing  efforts,  considering  their  numerous 
wants  and  disadvantages  :  "  Yes,  Sir,  (said  he,)  their  wants  were 

'  In  a  Discourse  by  Sir  William  Jones,  addressed  to  the  Asiatick 
Society  [in  Calcutta],  Feb.  24,  1785,  is  the  following  passage  : — 

'  One  of  the  most  sagacious  men  in  this  age  who  continues,  I  hope, 
to  improve  and  adorn  it,  Samuel  Johnson  [he  had  been  dead  ten 
weeks],  remarked  in  my  hearing,  that  if  Newton  had  flourished  in 
ancient  Greece,  he  would  have  been  worshipped  as  a  Divinity.'  Ma- 
lone.  Johnson,  in  An  Account  of  an  Attempt  to  ascertain  the  Longi- 
tude (  Wo7-ks,v.  299),  makes  the  supposed  authour  say  : — '  I  have  lived 
till  I  am  able  to  produce  in  my  favour  the  testimony  of  time,  the  in- 
flexible enemy  of  false  hypotheses ;  the  only  testimony  which  it  be- 
comes human  understanding  to  oppose  to  the  authority  of  Newton.' 

"^  Murphy  (Z//^',  p.  91)  places  the  scene  of  such  a  conversation  in  the 
house  ot  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury.  '  Boscovitch,'  he  writes,  '  had  a 
ready  current  flow  of  that  flimsy  phraseology  with  which  a  priest 
may  travel  through  Italy,  Spain,  and  Germany.  Johnson  scorned 
what  he  called  colloquial  barbarisms.  It  was  his  pride  to  speak  his 
best.  He  went  on,  after  a  little  practice,  with  as  much  facility  as  if 
it  was  his  native  tongue.  One  sentence  this  writer  well  remembers. 
Observing  that  Fontenelle  at  first  opposed  the  Newtonian  philoso- 
phy, and  embraced  it  afterwards,  his  words  were  : — "  Fontenellus,  ni 
fallor,  in  extrema  senectute  fuit  transfuga  ad  castra  Newtoniana." ' 
S&e.  post,  under  Nov.  12, 1775.  Boscovitch,  the  Jesuit  astronomer,  was 
a  professor  in  the  University  of  Pavia.  When  Dr.  Burney  visited  him, 
'  he  complained  very  much  of  the  silence  of  the  English  astronomers, 
who  answer  none  of  his  letters.'  Burney 's  Tour  in  France  a?id  Italy, 
p.  92. 

'  S&e.post,  in  1 781,  the  Life  oj  Lyttelton. 

numerous  ; 


Aetat.  Gi.]  Attorneys.  145 

numerous  ;  but  you  have  not  mentioned  the  greatest  of  them  all, — 
the  want  of  law." 

'Speaking  of  the  imoard  lights  to  which  some  methodists  pre- 
tended, he  said,  it  was  a  principle  utterly  incompatible  with  social 
or  civil  security.  "  If  a  man,  (said  he,)  pretends  to  a  principle  of 
action  of  which  I  can  know  nothing,  nay,  not  so  much  as  that  he 
has  it,  but  only  that  he  pretends  to  it ;  how  can  I  tell  what  that 
person  may  be  prompted  to  do  ?  When  a  person  professes  to  be 
governed  by  a  written  ascertained  law,  I  can  then  know  where  to 
find  him." 

'  The  poem  of  Fingal ',  he  said,  was  a  mere  unconnected  rhap- 
sody, a  tiresome  repetition  of  the  same  images.  "  In  vain  shall 
we  look  for  the  lucidus  ordo  ^,  where  there  is  neither  end  or  object, 
design  or  moral,  7iec  ccrta  recur rit  itnago." 

'  Being  asked  by  a  young  nobleman,  what  was  become  of  the 
gallantry  and  military  spirit  of  the  old  English  nobility,  he  replied, 
"Why,  my  Lord,  I'll  tell  you  what  is  become  of  it;  it  is  gone  into 
the  city  to  look  for  a  fortune." 

'  Speaking  of  a  dull  tiresome  fellow,  whom  he  chanced  to  meet, 
he  said,  "  That  fellow  seems  to  me  to  possess  but  one  idea,  and 
that  is  a  wrong  one." 

'  Much  enquiry  having  been  made  concerning  a  gentleman,  who 
had  quitted  a  company  where  Johnson  was,  and  no  information 
being  obtained ;  at  last  Johnson  observed,  that  "  he  did  not  care 
to  speak  ill  of  any  man  behind  his  back,  but  he  believed  the  gen- 
tleman was  an  attor?iey^ y 

'  The  first  of  Macpherson's  forgeries  was  Fragments  of  Ancient 
Poetry  collected  in  the  Highlands.  Edinburgh,  1760.  In  1762,  he  pub- 
lished in  London,  27/^?  Works  of  Ossian,  the  son  of  Fingal,  2  vols. 
Vol.  i.  contained  Fingal,  an  Ancient  Epic  Poem,  in  six  Books.  See  post, 
Jan.  1775. 

*  Horace.     Ars  Poetica,\.\\. 

^  Perhaps  Johnson  had  some  ill-will  towards  attorneys,  such  as  he 
had  towards  excisemen  (a«/^,  i.41,  note  i  and  341.     In  London,  yn\\\c\). 
was  published  in  May,  1738,  he  couples  them  with  street  robbers  : 
'Their  ambush  here  relentless  ruffians  lay, 
And  here  the  fell  attorney  prowls  for  prey.' 
Works,  i.  I.     In  a  paper  in   the   Gent.  I\Iag.  for  the  following  June 
(p.  287),  written,  I  have  little  doubt,  by  him,  the  profession  is  thus  sav- 
agely attacked  : — '  Our  ancestors,  in  ancient  times,  had  some  regard 
to  the  moral  character  of  the  person  sent  to  represent  them  in  their 
national  assemblies,  and  would  have  shewn  some  degree  of  resent- 
IL— 10  *He 


146  Arthur  Murphy.  [a.d.  1770. 

'  He  spoke  with  much  contempt  of  the  notice  taken  of  Wood- 
house,  the  poetical  shoemaker'.  He  said,  it  was  all  vanity  and 
childishness  :  and  that  such  objects  were,  to  those  who  patronised 
them,  mere  mirrours  of  their  own  superiority.  "  They  had  better, 
(said  he,)  furnish  the  man  with  good  implements  for  his  trade, 
than  raise  subscriptions  for  his  poems.  He  may  make  an  excel- 
lent shoemaker,  but  can  never  make  a  good  poet.  A  school-boy's 
exercise  may  be  a  pretty  thing  for  a  school-boy ;  but  it  is  no  treat 
for  a  man." 

'  Speaking  of  Boetius,  who  was  the  favourite  writer  of  the  mid- 
dle ages^  he  said  it  was  very  surprizing,  that  upon  such  a  subject, 
and  in  such  a  situation,  he  should  be  magis  philosophus  quam 
Christianus. 

'  Speaking  of  Arthur  Murphy,  whom  he  very  much  loved,  "  I 
don't  know,  (said  he,)  that  Arthur  can  be  classed  with  the  very  first 
dramatick  writers ;  yet  at  present  I  doubt  much  whether  we  have 
any  thing  superiour  to  Arthur^." 

ment  or  indignation,  had  their  votes  been  asked  for  a  murderer,  an 
adulterer,  a  known  oppressor,  an  hireling  evidence,  an  attorney,  a 
gamester,  or  a  pimp.'  In  the  Life  of  Blackmore  ( Works,  viii.  36)  he 
has  a  sty  hit  at  the  profession.  '  Sir  Richard  Blackmore  was  the  son 
of  Robert  Blackmore,  styled  by  Wood  gentleman,  and  supposed  to 
have  been  an  attorney.'  We  may  compare  Goldsmith's  lines  in 
Retaliation  .■— 

'Then  what  was  his  failing?   come  tell  it,  and  burn  ye, — 
He  was,  could  he  help  it }  a  special  attorney.' 
See  also /ci'/,  under  June  16,  1784. 

'  See  ante,  i.  Appendix  F. 

^  Dr.  Maxwell  is  perhaps  here  quoting  The  Idler,  No.  69,  where 
Johnson,  speaking  of  Boet/tius  on  the  Comforts  of  Philosophy,  calls  it 
'  the  book  which  seems  to  have  been  the  favourite  of  the  middle  ages.' 

'  Yet  it  is  of  Murphy's  tragedy  of  Zenobia  that  Mrs.  Piozzi  writes 
(Anee.  p.  280)  : — '  A  gentleman  carried  Dr.  Johnson  his  tragedy,  which 
because  he  loved  the  author,  he  took,  and  it  lay  about  our  rooms  some 
time.  "  What  answer  did  you  give  your  friend.  Sir .''"  said  I,  after  the 
book  had  been  called  for.  "  I  told  him,"  replied  he, "  that  there  was 
too  much  7>>  and  Tirry  in  it."  Seeing  me  laugh  most  violently, 
"  Why,  what  would'st  have,  child  ?"  said  he.  "  I  looked  at  nothing 
but  the  dramatis  [persona;],  and  there  was  Tigranes  and  Tiridates,  or 
Teribazus,  or  such  stuff.  A  man  can  tell  but  what  he  knows,  and  I 
never  got  any  further  than  the  first  page." '  In  Zenobia  two  of  the 
characters  are  Teribazus  and  Tigranes. 

'  Speaking 


Aetat.  61.]  Marriages.  147 

'  Speaking  of  the  national  debt,  he  said,  it  was  an  idle  dream  to 
suppose  that  the  countr}^  could  sink  under  it.  Let  the  public  cred- 
itors be  ever  so  clamorous,  the  interest  of  millions  must  ever  pre- 
vail over  that  of  thousands '. 

'  Of  Dr.  Kennicott's  Collations,  he  observed,  that  though  the  text 
should  not  be  much  mended  thereby,  yet  it  was  no  small  advantage 
to  know,  that  we  had  as  good  a  text  as  the  most  consummate  in- 
dustry and  diligence  could  procure". 

'Johnson  observed,  that  so  many  objections  might  be  made  to 
every  thing,  that  nothing  could  overcome  them  but  the  necessity  of 
doing  something.  No  man  would  be  of  any  profession,  as  simply 
opposed  to  not  being  of  it :  but  every  one  must  do  something. 

'  He  remarked,  that  a  London  parish  was  a  very  comfortless 
thing ;  for  the  clerg)'man  seldom  knew  the  face  of  one  out  of  ten 
of  his  parishioners. 

'  Of  the  late  Mr.  Mallet  he  spoke  with  no  great  respect :  said,  he 
was  ready  for  any  dirty  job  :  that  he  had  wrote  against  Byng  at 
the  instigation  of  the  ministry  ^,  and  was  equally  ready  to  write  for 
him,  provided  he  found  his  account  in  it. 

'  A  gentleman  who  had  been  very  unhappy  in  marriage,  married 
immediately  after  his  wife  died :  Johnson  said,  it  was  the  triumph 
of  hope  over  experience. 

'  He  observed,  that  a  man  of  sense  and  education  should  meet  a 
suitable  companion  in  a  wife  \  It  was  a  miserable  thing  when  the 
conversation  could  only  be  such  as,  whether  the  mutton  should  be 
boiled  or  roasted,  and  probably  a  dispute  about  that. 

'  He  did  not  approve  of  late  marriages,  observing  that  more  was 


'  Hume  was  one  who  had  this  idle  dream.  Shortly  before  his  death 
one  of  his  friends  wrote  : — '  He  still  maintains  that  the  national  debt 
must  be  the  ruin  of  Britain ;  and  laments  that  the  two  most  civilised 
nations,  the  English  and  French,  should  be  on  the  decline ;  and  the 
barbarians,  the  Goths  and  Vandals  of  Germany  and  Russia,  should  be 
rising  in  power  and  renown.'     J.  H.  Burton's  Hume,  ii.  497. 

"^  Hannah  More  was  with  Dr.  Kennicott  at  his  death.  '  Thus  closed 
a  life,'  she  wrote  {Memoirs,  i.  289), '  the  last  thirty  years  of  which  were 
honourably  spent  in  collating  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.'  See  also  Bos- 
well's  Hebrides,  Aug.  16,  1773. 

'  Johnson  (  Works,  viii.  467)  says  that  Mallet,  in  return  for  what  he 
wrote  against  Byng, '  had  a  considerable  pension  bestowed  upon  him. 
which  he  retained  to  his  death.'     See  ante,  i.  312. 

*  See  ajite,  ii.  87. 

lost 


148  A  quotation  from  Virgil.  [a.d.  1770. 

lost  in  point  of  time,  than  compensated  for  by  any  possible  advan- 
tages '.  Even  ill  assorted  marriages  were  preferable  to  cheerless 
celibacy. 

'Of  old  Sheridan  he  remarked,  that  he  neither  wanted  parts 
nor  literature ;  but  that  his  vanity  and  Quixotism  obscured  his 
merits. 

'  He  said,  foppery  was  never  cured ;  it  was  the  bad  stamina  of 
the  mind,  which,  like  those  of  the  body,  were  never  rectified :  once 
a  coxcomb,  and  always  a  coxcomb. 

'  Being  told  that  Gilbert  Cowper  called  him  the  Caliban  of  liter- 
ature; "Well,  (said  he,)  I  must  dub  him  the  Punchinello"." 

'  Speaking  of  the  old  Earl  of  Corke  and  Orrery,  he  said,  "  that 
man  spent  his  life  in  catching  at  an  object,  [literary  eminence,] 
which  he  had  not  power  to  grasp  ^" 

*  To  find  a  substitution  for  violated  morality,  he  said,  was  the 
leading  feature  in  all  perversions  of  religion. 

'  He  often  used  to  quote,  with  great  pathos,  those  fine  lines  of 
Virgil : 

"  Optima  quaqne  dies  iniseris  mortalibus  cevi 
Prima  fugit  * ;  siibeunt  morbi,  tristisqiie  sefiectus, 
Et  labor,  et  diirce  rapit  indementia  inortis^y 

'  '  It  is  dangerous  for  a  man  and  woman  to  suspend  their  fate  upon 
each  other  at  a  time  when  opinions  are  fixed,  and  habits  are  estab- 
lished ;  when  friendships  have  been  contracted  on  both  sides ;  when 
life  has  been  planned  into  method,  and  the  mind  has  long  enjoyed 
the  contemplation  of  its  own  prospects.'     Rasselas,  ch.  xxix. 

"^  Malone  records  that '  Cooper  was  round  and  fat.  Dr.  Warton,  one 
day,  when  dining  with  Johnson,  urged  in  his  favour  that  he  was,  at 
least,  very  well  informed,  and  a  good  scholar.  "  Yes,"  said  Johnson, 
"  it  cannot  be  denied  that  he  has  good  materials  for  playing  the  fool, 
and  he  makes  abundant  use  of  them."  '  Prior's  Malone,  p.  428.  See 
post,  Sept.  15,  1777,  note. 

^  S&G^post,  Sept.  21,  1777,  and  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Sept.  22,  1773. 

^  But  see  ante,  i.  346,  where  Johnson  owned  that  his  happier  days  had 
come  last. 

*  '  In  youth  alone  unhappy  mortals  live, 

But  ah !  the  mighty  bliss  is  fugitive ; 
Discolour'd  sickness,  anxious  labours  come, 
And  age,  and  death's  inexorable  doom.' 
Drvden.     Virgil,  Georgics,  iii.  66.     In  the  first  edition  Dr.  Maxwell's 
Collectanea  ended  here.     What  follows  was  given  in  the  second  edi- 
tion in  Additions  received  after  the  second  edition  was  printed,  i.  v. 

'  Speaking 


Aetat,  61.]  Respect  for  the  7iobility.  149 

'  Speaking  of  Homer,  whom  he  venerated  as  the  prince  of  poets, 
Johnson  remarked  that  the  advice  given  to  Diomed '  by  his  father, 
when  he  sent  him  to  the  Trojan  war,  was  the  noblest  exhortation 
that  could  be  instanced  in  any  heathen  writer,  and  comprised  in  a 
single  line : 

which,  if  I  recollect  well,  is  translated  by  Dr.  Clarke  thus  :  sejnper 
ajypetcre pra;stantissifna,  ct  omnibus  aliis  antecdlere. 

'  He  observed,  "  it  was  a  most  mortifying  reflexion  for  any  man 
to  consider,  tvhat  he  had  done,  compared  with  what  he  might  have 
doner 

'  He  said  few  people  had  intellectual  resources  sufficient  to  forego 
the  pleasures  of  wine.  They  could  not  otherwise  contrive  how  to 
fill  the  interval  between  dinner  and  supper. 

'  He  went  with  me,  one  Sunday,  to  hear  my  old  Master,  Gregory 
Sharpe"'',  preach  at  the  Temple.  In  the  prefatory  prayer,  Sharpe 
ranted  about  Liberty,  as  a  blessing  most  fervently  to  be  implored, 
and  its  continuance  prayed  for,  Johnson  observed,  that  our  liberty 
was  in  no  sort  of  danger : — he  would  have  done  much  better,  to 
pray  against  our  licentiousness. 

'  One  evening  at  Mrs.  Montagu's,  where  a  splendid  company  was 
assembled,  consisting  of  the  most  eminent  literary  characters,  I 
thought  he  seemed  highly  pleased  with  the  respect  and  attention 
that  were  shewn  him,  and  asked  him  on  our  return  home  if  he  was 
not  highly  gratified  by  his  visit :  "  No,  Sir,  (said  he,)  not  highly  grat- 
ified;  yet  I  do  not  recollect  to  have  passed  many  evenings  with 
fewer  objections T 

'  Though  of  no  high  extraction  himself,  he  had  much  respect  for 
birth  and  family,  especially  among  ladies.  He  said,  "  adventitious 
accomplishments  may  be  possessed  by  all  ranks ;  but  one  may 
easily  distinguish  the  born  gentlewoman." 

'  He  said,  "  the  poor  in  England  ^  were  better  provided  for,  than 


'  To  Glaucus.  Clarke's  translation  is  : — '  Ut  semper  fortissime  rem 
gererem,  et  superior  virtutc  cssem  aliis.'  Iliad,  vi.  208.  Cowper's 
version  is : — 

'That  I  should  outstrip  always  all  mankind 
In  worth  and  vahjur.' 
"^  Maxwell  calls  him  his  old  master,  because  Sharpe  was  Master  of 
the  Temple  when  Maxwell  was  assistant  preacher.     Croker. 

^  Dr.  T.  Campbell,  in  his  Survey  of  the  South  of  Ireland,  p.  185. 

in 


150  The  poor  in  England.  [a. d.  1770. 

in  any  other  country  of  the  same  extent :  he  did  not  mean  little 
Cantons,  or  petty  Republicks.  Where  a  great  proportion  of  the 
people,  (said  he,)  are  suffered  to  languish  in  helpless  misery,  that 
country  must  be  ill  policed,  and  wretchedly  governed :  a  decent 
provision  for  the  poor,  is  the  true  test  of  civilization. — Gentlemen 
of  education,  he  observed,  were  pretty  much  the  same  in  all  coun- 
tries ;  the  condition  of  the  lower  orders,  the  poor  especially,  was 
the  true  mark  of  national  discrimination." 

'  When  the  corn  laws  were  in  agitation  in  Ireland,  by  which  that 
country  has  been  enabled  not  only  to  feed  itself,  but  to  export  corn 
to  a  large  amount' ;  Sir  Thomas  Robinson^  observed,  that  those 
laws  might  be  prejudicial  to  the  corn -trade  of  England.  "Sir 
Thomas,  (said  he,)  you  talk  the  language  of  a  savage :  what,  Sir  ? 
would  you  prevent  any  people  from  feeding  themselves,  if  by  any 
honest  means  they  can  do  it^" 

'  It  being  mentioned,  that  Garrick  assisted  Dr.  Brown,  the  authour 
of  the  Estimate'^,  m  some  dramatick  composition,  "No,  Sir,  (said 

writes  : — '  In  England  the  meanest  cottager  is  better  fed,  better  lodged, 
and  better  dressed  than  the  most  opulent  farmers  here.'  See  post, 
Oct.  10,  1779. 

*  In  the  vice-royalty  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  which  began  in  Dec. 
1756,  'in  order  to  encourage  tillage  a  law  was  passed  granting  boun- 
ties on  the  land  carriage  of  corn  and  flour  to  the  metropolis.'  Lecky's 
Hz'st.  of  Eng.  ii.  435.  In  1773-4  a  law  was  passed  granting  bounties 
upon  the  export  of  Irish  corn  to  foreign  countries.    lb.  iv.  415. 

*  See  ante,  i.  502. 

^  See  attte,  ii.  139.  Lord  Karnes,  in  his  Sketches  of  the  History  of 
Man,  published  in  1774,  says  : — '  In  Ireland  to  this  day  goods  exported 
are  loaded  with  a  high  duty,  without  even  distinguishing  made  work 
from  raw  materials ;  corn,  for  example,  fish,  butter,  horned  cattle, 
leather,  &c.  And,  that  nothing  may  escape,  all  goods  exported  that 
are  not  contained  in  the  book  of  rates,  pay  five  per  cent,  ad  valoreift,' 
ii.  413.  These  export  duties  were  selfishly  levied  in  what  was  sup- 
posed to  be  the  interest  of  England. 

■*  'At  this  time  [1756]  appeared  Brown's  Estimate,  a  book  now  re- 
membered only  by  the  allusions  in  Cowper's  Table  Talk  [Cowper's 
Poe7ns,  ed.  1786,  i.  20]  and  in  Burke's  Letters  on  a  Regicide  Peace 
[Payne's  Burke,  p.  9].  It  was  universally  read,  admired,  and  believed. 
The  author  fully  convinced  his  readers  that  they  were  a  race  of  cow- 
ards and  scoundrels ;  that  nothing  could  save  them ;  that  they  were 
on  the  point  of  being  enslaved  by  their  enemies,  and  that  they  richly 
deserved  their  fate.'     Macaulay's  Essays,  ii.  183.     Dr.  J.  H.  Burton 

Johnson,) 


Aetat.  61.]  Dr.  Br oivii  s  Estimate.  151 

Johnson,)  he  would  no  more  suffer  Garrick  to  write  a  line  in  his 
play,  than  he  would  suffer  him  to  mount  his  pulpit." 

'  Speaking  of  Burke,  he  said,  "  It  was  commonly  observed,  he 
spoke  too  often  in  parliament ;  but  nobody  could  say  he  did  not 
speak  well,  though  too  frequently  and  too  familiarly'." 

'  Speaking  of  economy,  he  remarked,  it  was  hardly  worth  while 
to  save  anxiously  twenty  pounds  a  year.  If  a  man  could  save  to 
that  degree,  so  as  to  enable  him  to  assume  a  different  rank  in  so- 
ciety, then  indeed,  it  might  answer  some  purpose. 

'  He  observed,  a  principal  source  of  erroneous  judgement  was, 
viewing  things  partially  and  only  on  one  side :  as  for  instance,^^/-/- 
tinc-hunicrs^  when  they  contemplated  the  fortunes  singly  and  sepa- 
rately, it  was  a  dazzling  and  tempting  object ;  but  when  they  came 
to  possess  the  wives  and  their  fortunes  together,  they  began  to  sus- 
pect that  they  had  not  made  quite  so  good  a  bargain. 

'  Speaking  of  the  late  Duke  of  Northumberland  living  very  mag- 
nificently when  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  somebody  remarked 
it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  suitable  successor  to  him  :  then  ex- 
claimed Johnson,  he  is  only  fit  to  sueceed  himself"^ . 

'  He  advised  me,  if  possible,  to  have  a  good  orchard.     He  knew, 

says : — '  Dr.  Brown's  book  is  said  to  have  run  to  a  seventh  edition  in 
a  few  months.  It  is  rather  singular  that  the  edition  marked  as  the 
seventh  has  precisely  the  same  matter  in  each  page,  and  the  same 
number  of  pages  as  the  first.'  Life  oj  Hume,  \\.ii.  Brown  wrote  two 
tragedies.  Barbarossa  and  Athelstan,  both  of  which  Garrick  brought 
out  at  Drury  Lane.  In  Barbarossa  Johnson  observed  '  that  there  were 
two  improprieties ;  in  the  first  place,  the  use  of  a  bell  is  unknown  to 
the  Mahometans ;  and  secondly,  Otway  had  tolled  a  bell  before  Dr. 
Brown,  and  we  are  not  to  be  made  April  fools  twice  by  the  same 
trick.'  Murphy's  Garrick,  \).  173.  Brown's  vanity  is  shown  in  a  let- 
ter to  Garrick  {Garrick  Carres,  i.  220)  written  on  Jan.  19,  1766,  in  which 
he  talks  of  going  to  St.  Petersburg,  and  drawing  up  a  System  of  Leg- 
islation for  the  Russian  Empire.  In  the  following  September,  in  a  fit 
of  madness,  he  made  away  with  himself. 

'  See/c;.y/,  May  8,  1781. 

'  Horace  Walpole,  writing  in  May,  1764,  says  : — '  The  Earl  of  North- 
umberland returned  from  Ireland,  where  his  profusion  and  ostenta- 
tion had  been  so  great  that  it  seemed  to  lay  a  dangerous  precedent 
for  succeeding  governors.'  Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  George  III,  i.  417. 
He  was  created  Duke  in  1766.  For  some  pleasant  anecdotes  about 
this  nobleman  and  Goldsmith,  see  Goldsmith's  Misc.  Works,  i.  66,  and 
Forster's  Goldsmith,  i.  379,  and  ii.  227. 

he 


152  The  Irish  clergy.  [a.d.  1770. 


he  said,  a  clergyman  of  small  income,  who  brought  up  a  family  very 
reputably  which  he  chiefly  fed  with  apple  dumplins. 

'  He  said,  he  had  known  several  good  scholars  among  the  Irish 
gentlemen ;  but  scarcely  any  of  them  correct  in  quantity.  He  ex- 
tended the  same  observation  to  Scotland. 

'  Speaking  of  a  certain  Prelate,  who  exerted  himself  very  lauda- 
bly in  building  churches  and  parsonage  -  houses  ;  "  however,  said 
he,  I  do  not  find  that  he  is  esteemed  a  man  of  much  professional 
learning,  or  a  liberal  patron  of  it ; — yet,  it  is  well,  where  a  man  pos- 
sesses any  strong  positive  excellence. — Few  have  all  kinds  of  merit 
belonging  to  their  character.  We  must  not  examine  matters  too 
deeply — No,  Sir,  z.  fallible  being  will  fail  some-where." 

'  Talking  of  the  Irish  clergy,  he  said.  Swift  was  a  man  of  great 
parts,  and  the  instrument  of  much  good  to  his  country'. — Berkeley 
was  a  profound  scholar,  as  well  as  a  man  of  fine  imagination ;  but 
Usher,  he  said,  was  the  great  luminary  of  the  Irish  church  ;  and  a 
greater,  he  added,  no  church  could  boast  of;  at  least  in  modern 
times. 

'  We  dined  tete-a-tete  at  the  Mitre,  as  I  was  preparing  to  return  to 
Ireland,  after  an  absence  of  many  years.  I  regretted  much  leaving 
London,  where  I  had  formed  many  agreeable  connexions  :  "  Sir, 
(said  he,)  I  don't  wonder  at  it ;  no  man,  fond  of  letters,  leaves 
London  Avithout  regret.  But  remember,  Sir,  you  have  seen  and 
enjoyed  a  great  deal ; — you  have  seen  life  in  its  highest  decora- 
tions, and  the  world  has  nothing  new  to  exhibit.  No  man  is  so 
well  qualifyed  to  leave  publick  life  as  he  who  has  long  tried  it  and 
known  it  well.     We  are  always  hankering  after  untried  situations, 

'  Johnson  thus  writes  of  him  {Works, v\\\.  207): — 'The  Archbishop 
of  Dublin  gave  him  at  first  some  disturbance  in  the  exercise  of  his 
jurisdiction ;  but  it  was  soon  discovered  that  between  prudence  and 
integrity  he  was  seldom  in  the  wrong ;  and  that,  when  he  was  right, 
his  spirit  did  not  easily  yield  to  opposition.'  He  adds  :  '  He  delivered 
Ireland  from  plunder  and  oppression,  and  showed  that  wit  confeder- 
ated with  truth  had  such  force  as  authority  was  unable  to  resist.  He 
said  truly  of  himself  that  Ireland  "  was  his  debtor."  It  was  from  the 
time  when  he  first  began  to  patronise  the  Irish,  that  they  may  date 
their  riches  and  prosperity.'  lb.  p.  319.  Pope,  in  his  Imitations  of 
Horace,  II.  i.  221,  says : — 

'  Let  Ireland  tell  how  wit  upheld  her  cause. 
Her  trade  supported,  and  supplied  her  laws, 
And  leave  on  Swift  this  grateful  verse  engraved, 
"  The  rights  a  Court  attacked,  a  poet  saved." ' 

and 


Aetat. 61.]  JoJiusons  retentive  memory.  153 

and  imagining  greater  felicity  from  them  than  they  can  afford. 
No,  Sir,  knowledge  and  virtue  may  be  acquired  in  all  countries, 
and  your  local  consequence  will  make  you  some  amends  for  the 
intellectual  gratifications  you  relinquish."  Then  he  quoted  the 
following  lines  with  great  pathos  : — 

"  He  who  has  early  known  the  pomps  of  state, 
(For  things  unknown,  'tis  ignorance  to  condemn ;) 
And  after  having  viewed  the  gaudy  bait, 
Can  boldly  say,  the  {rifle  I  contemn ; 
With  such  a  one  contented  could  I  live. 
Contented  could  I  die ' ;" — 

'  He  then  took  a  most  affecting  leave  of  me ;  said,  he  knew,  it 


'  These  lines  have  been  discovered  by  the  author's  second  son  in 
the  Lofidon  Magazine  for  July,  1732,  where  they  form  part  of  a  poem 
on  Retirement,  copied,  with  some  slight  variations,  from  one  of  Walsh's 
smaller  poems,  entitled  The  Retirement.  They  exhibit  another  proof 
that  Johnson  retained  in  his  memory  fragments  of  neglected  poetry. 
In  quoting  verses  of  that  description,  he  appears  by  a  slight  varia- 
tion to  have  sometimes  given  them  a  moral  turn,  and  to  have  dex- 
terously adapted  them  to  his  own  sentiments,  where  the  original 
had  a  very  different  tendency.  In  1782,  when  he  was  at  Brighthelm- 
stone,  he  repeated  to  Mr.  Metcalfe,  some  verses,  as  very  character- 
istic of  a  celebrated  historian  [Gibbon].  They  are  found  among 
some  anonymous  poems  appended  to  the  second  volume  of  a  col- 
lection frequently  printed  by  Lintot,  under  the  title  of  Popes  Miscel- 
lanies : — 

'  See  how  the  wand'ring  Danube  flows. 
Realms  and  religions  parting; 
A  friend  to  all  true  christian  foes. 

To  Peter,  Jack,  and  Martin. 
Now  Protestant,  and  Papist  now, 

Not  constant  long  to  either. 
At  length  an  infidel  does  grow. 
And  ends  his  journey  neither. 
Thus  many  a  youth  I've  known  set  out. 

Half  Protestant,  half  Papist, 
And  rambling  long  the  world  about, 
Turn  infidel  or  atheist.' 
Malone.     See  post,  1780,  in  Mr.  Langton's  Collection,  and   Boswell's 
Hebrides,  Aug.  27,  and  Oct.  28,  1773. 

wa.s 


154  Falkland's  Islands.  [a.d.  1771. 

was  a  point  of  duty  that  called  me  away.     "  We  shall  all  be  sorry 
to  lose  you,"  said  he  :  ^^ laudo  iajncn\'' ' 

1771  :  ^TAT.  62.] — In  1 77 1  he  published  another  political 
pamphlet,  entitled  Thoughts  on  the  late  Transactions  respect- 
ing Falkland's  Islands'",  in  which,  upon  materials  furnished 
to  him  by  ministry,  and  upon  general  topicks  expanded 
in  his  richest  style,  he  successfully  endeavoured  to  persuade 
the  nation  that  it  was  wise  and  laudable  to  suffer  the  ques- 
tion of  right  to  remain  undecided,  rather  than  involve  our 
country  in  another  war.  It  has  been  suggested  by  some, 
with  what  truth  I  shall  not  take  upon  me  to  decide,  that 
he  rated  the  consequence  of  those  islands  to  Great-Britain 
too  low^  But  however  this  may  be,  every  humane  mind 
must  surely  applaud  the  earnestness  with  which  he  avert- 
ed the  calamity  of  war;  a  calamity  so  dreadful,  that  it  is 
astonishing  how  civilised,  nay.  Christian  nations,  can  deliber- 
ately continue  to  renew  it.  His  description  of  its  miseries 
in  this  pamphlet,  is  one  of  the  finest  pieces  of  eloquence 
in  the  English  language'.     Upon  this  occasion,  too,  we  find 

'  Juvenal,  Sat.  iii.  1.  2. 

'  Yet  still  my  calmer  thoughts  his  choice  commend.' 

Johnson's  Lojidon,  1.  3. 

'  It  was  published  without  the  author's  name. 

^  '  What  have  we  acquired  .'*  What  but  ...  an  island  thrown  aside 
from  human  use ;  ...  an  island  which  not  the  southern  savages  have 
dignified  with  habitation.'      Works,  vi.  198. 

*  '  It  is  wonderful  with  v/hat  coolness  and  indifference  the  greater 
part  of  mankind  see  war  commenced.  Those  that  hear  of  it  at  a  dis- 
tance, or  read  of  it  in  books,  but  have  never  presented  its  evils  to 
their  minds,  consider  it  as  little  more  than  a  splendid  game,  a  procla- 
mation, an  army,  a  battle,  and  a  triumph.  Some,  indeed,  must  perish 
in  the  most  successful  field,  but  they  die  upon  the  bed  of  honour, 
"  resign  their  lives,  amidst  the  joys  of  conquest,  and,  filled  with  Eng- 
land's glory,  smile  in  death."  The  life  of  a  modern  soldier  is  ill-repre- 
sented by  heroic  fiction.  War  has  means  of  destruction  more  formi- 
dable than  the  cannon  and  the  sword.  Of  the  thousands  and  ten 
thousands  that  perished  in  our  late  contests  with  France  and  Spain, 
a  very  small  part  ever  felt  the  stroke  of  an  enemy;  the  rest  lan- 
guished in  tents  and  ships,  amidst  damps  and  putrefaction  ;  pale,  tor- 
Johnson 


Aetat.63.]  Junius.  155 

Johnson  lashing  the  party  in  opposition  with  unbounded 
severity,  and  making  the  fullest  use  of  what  he  ever  reckoned 
a  most  effectual  argumentative  instrument,  —  contempt'. 
His  character  of  their  very  able  mysterious  champion, 
Junius,  is  executed  with  all  the  force  of  his  genius,  and 
finished  with  the  highest  care.  He  seems  to  have  exulted 
in  sallying  forth  to  single  combat  against  the  boasted  and 
formidable  hero,  who  bade  defiance  to  '  principalities  and 
powers,  and  the  rulers  of  this  world  ^' 

This  pamphlet,  it  is  observable,  was  softened  in  one  par- 
ticular, after  the  first  edition  ^ ;   for  the  conclusion   of  Mr. 


pid,  spiritless,  and  helpless ;  gasping  and  groaning,  unpitied  among 
men  made  obdurate  by  long  continuance  of  hopeless  misery;  and 
were  at  last  whelmed  in  pits,  or  heaved  into  the  ocean,  without  no- 
tice and  without  remembrance.  By  incommodious  encampments 
and  unwholesome  stations,  where  courage  is  useless,  and  enterprise 
impracticable,  fleets  are  silently  dispeopled,  and  armies  sluggishly 
melted  away.'      Works,  vi.  199. 

'  Johnson  wrote  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham  : — '  This  surely  is  a  suffi- 
cient answer  to  the  feudal  gabble  of  a  man  who  is  every  day  lessen- 
ing that  splendour  of  character  which  once  illuminated  the  kingdom, 
then  dazzled,  and  afterwards  inflamed  it ;  and  for  whom  it  will  be 
happy  if  the  nation  shall  at  last  dismiss  him  to  nameless  obscurity, 
with  that  equipoise  of  blame  and  praise  which  Corneille  allows  to 
Richelieu.'      Works, \\.\g,1- 

"^  Ephesians,  vi.  12.  Johnson  {Works,  vi.  198)  calls  Junius  'one  of 
the  few  writers  of  his  despicable  faction  whose  name  does  not  dis- 
grace the  page  of  an  opponent.'  But  he  thus  ends  his  attack ; — 
'  What,  says  Pope,  must  be  the  priest  where  a  monkey  is  the  god  ? 
What  must  be  the  drudge  of  a  party  of  which  the  heads  are  Wilkes 
and  Crosby,  Sawbridge  and  Townsend  ?'    lb.  p.  206. 

'  This  softening  was  made  in  the  later  copies  of  xkio.  first  edition. 
A  second  change  seems  to  have  been  made.  In  the  text,  as  given  in 
Murphy's  edition  (1796,  viii.  137),  the  last  line  of  the  passage  stands: 
— '  If  he  was  sometimes  wrong,  he  was  often  right.'  Horace  Walpole 
describes  Grenville's  'plodding,  methodic  genius,  which  made  him 
take  the  spirit  of  detail  for  ability.'  Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  George 
III,  i.  36.  For  the  fine  character  that  Burke  drew  of  him  see  Payne's 
Burke,  i.  122.  There  is,  I  think,  a  hit  at  Lord  Bute's  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  Sir  F.  Dashwood  (Lord  Le  Despencer),  who  was  described 
as  'a  man  to  whom  a  sum  of  five  figures  was  an  impenetrable  secret.' 

George 


156  Mr.  George  Grenville.  [a. d.  1771. 

George  Grenville's  character  stood  thus :  '  Let  him  not,  how- 
ever, be  depreciated  in  his  grave.  He  had  powers  not  uni- 
versally possessed  :  could  he  have  enforced  payment  of  the 
Manilla  ransom,  lie  could  have  counted  it '.'  Which,  instead 
of  retaining  its  sly  sharp  point,  was  reduced  to  a  mere  flat 
unmeaning  expression,  or,  if  I  may  use  the  word, — truism  : 
'  He  had  powers  not  universally  possessed :  and  if  he  some- 
times erred,  he  was  likewise  sometimes  right.' 

'To  Bennet  Langton,  Esq, 

'Dear  Sir, 

'  After  much  lingering  of  my  own,  and  much  of  the  ministry, 
I  have  at  length  got  out  my  paper".  But  delay  is  not  yet  at  an 
end :  Not  many  had  been  dispersed,  before  Lord  North  ordered 
the  sale  to  stop.  His  reasons  I  do  not  distinctly  know.  You  may 
try  to  find  them  in  the  perusal^.  Before  his  order,  a  sufficient 
number  were  dispersed  to  do  all  the  mischief,  though,  perhaps,  not 
to  make  all  the  sport  that  might  be  expected  from  it. 

'  Soon  after  your  departure,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  finding  all  the 
danger  past  with  which  your  navigation  *  was  threatened.  I  hope 
nothing  happens  at  home  to  abate  your  satisfaction  ;  but  that  Lady 
Rothes '%  and  Mrs.  Langton,  and  the  young  ladies,  are  all  well. 

Walpole's  Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  George  III,  i.  172,  note.  He  him- 
self said,  '  People  will  point  at  me,  and  cry,  "  there  goes  the  worst 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  that  ever  appeared."  '     lb.  p.  250. 

'  Boswell,  I  suspect,  quoted  this  passage  from  hearsay,  for  originally 
it  stood  : — '  If  he  could  have  got  the  money,  he  could  have  counted 
it'  (p.  68).  In  the  British  Museum  there  are  copies  of  the  first  edi- 
tion both  softened  and  unsoftencd. 

*  Thoughts  on  the  late  Transactions  respecting  Falkland's  Islands. 
BOSWELL. 

'  By  comparing  the  first  with  the  subsequent  editions,  this  curious 
circumstance  of  ministerial  authorship  may  be  discovered.    Boswell. 

■•  Navigation  was  the  common  term  for  canals,  which  at  that  time 
were  getting  rapidly  made.  A  writer  in  Notes  and  Queries,  6th  S.  xi. 
64,  shows  that  Langton,  as  payment  of  a  loan,  undertook  to  pay  John- 
son's servant,  Frank,  an  annuity  for  life,  secured  on  profits  from  the 
navigation  of  the  River  Wey  in  Surrey. 

*  It  was,  Mr.  Chalmers  told  me,  a  saying  about  that  time, '  Married 
a  Countess  Dowager  of  Rothes  !  Why,  everybody  marries  a  Countess 
Dowager  of  Rothes  !'    And  there  were  in  fact,  about  1772,  three  ladies 

*  I  was 


Aetat.  62.]  Mr.  StraJian.  157 

'  I  was  last  night  at  the  club.     Dr.  Percy  has  written  a  long 

ballad '  in  manyyf/j-/  it  is  pretty  enough.     He  has  printed,  and  will 

soon  publish  it.     Goldsmith  is  at  Bath,  with  Lord  Clare "'.     At  Mr, 

Thrale's,  where  I  am  now  writing,  all  are  well.     I  am,  dear  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  March  20,  1771.' 

Mr.  Strahan  ^  the  printer,  who  had  been  long  in  intimacy 
with  Johnson,  in  the  course  of  his  literary  labours,  who  was  at 
once  his  friendly  agent  in  receiving  his  pension  for  him*,  and 

of  that  name  married  to  second  husbands.     Croker.     Mr.  Langton 
married  one  of  these  ladies. 

'  The  Hermit  of  IVarkivorth  :  A  Ballad  in  three  cantos.  T.  Davis, 
2S.  6d.  Cradock  {Memoirs,  i.  207)  quotes  Johnson's  parody  on  a  stanza 
in  The  Her7nit : 

'  I  put  my  hat  upon  my  head, 

And  walked  into  the  Strand, 
And  there  I  met  another  man 
With  his  hat  in  his  hand.' 
'  Mr.  Garrick,'  he  continues,  'asked  me  whether  I  had  seen  Johnson's 
criticism  on   The  Hermit.     "  It  is  already,"  said  he,  "  over  half  the 
town."  ' 

"  '"  I  am  told,"  says  a  letter-writer  of  the  day,  "  that  Dr.  Goldsmith 
now  generally  lives  with  his  countryman,  Lord  Clare,  who  has  lost 
his  only  son,  Colonel  Nugent."  '  Forster's  Goldsmith,  ii.  228.  '  The 
Haunch  of  Venison  was  written  this  year  (1771),  and  appears  to  have 
been  written  for  Lord  Clare  alone ;  nor  was  it  until  two  years  after 
the  writer's  death  that  it  obtained  a  wider  audience  than  his  immedi- 
ate circle  of  friends.'    lb.  p.  230.     S&g.  post,  April  17,  1778. 

'  Gibbon  {Misc.  IVor/cs,  i.  222)  mentions  Mr.  Strahan  : — '  I  agreed 
upon  easy  terms  with  Mr.  Thomas  Cadell,  a  respectable  bookseller, 
and  Mr.  William  Strahan,  an  eminent  printer,  and  they  undertook  the 
care  and  risk  of  the  publication  [of  the  Decline  and  Fall\,\vh\c\\  de- 
riv^ed  more  credit  from  the  name  of  the  shop  than  from  that  of  the 
author.  ...  So  moderate  were  our  hopes,  that  the  original  impression 
had  been  stinted  to  five  hundred,  till  the  number  was  doubled  by  the 
prophetic  taste  of  Mr.  Strahan.'  Hume,  by  his  will,  left  to  Strahan's 
care  all  his  manuscripts, '  trusting,'  he  says, '  to  the  friendship  that  has 
long  subsisted  between  us  for  his  careful  and  faithful  execution  of  my 
intentions.'  J.  H.  Burton's  Hume,  ii.  494.  Sec  id.  p.  512,  for  a  letter 
written  to  Hume  on  his  death-bed  by  Strahan. 

*  Dr.  Franklm,  writing  of  the  year  1773,  says  {Memoirs,  i.  398  : — '  An 

his 


158  A  seat  in  Parliament  for  Johnson,    [a. d.  1771. 

his  banker  in  supplying  him  with  money  when  he  wanted  it ; 
who  was  himself  now  a  Member  of  Parliament,  and  who  loved 
much  to  be  employed  in  political  negociation' ;  thought  he 
should  do  eminent  service  both  to  government  and  Johnson, 
if  he  could  be  the  means  of  his  getting  a  seat  in  the  House 
of  Commons'.  With  this  view,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  one  of 
the  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury,  of  which  he  gave  me  a  copy 
in  his  own  hand-writing,  which  is  as  follows : — 

'Sir, 

'  You  will  easily  recollect,  when  I  had  the  honour  of  waiting 
upon  you  some  time  ago,  I  took  the  liberty  to  observe  to  you,  that 
Dr.  Johnson  would  make  an  excellent  figure  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  heartily  wished  he  had  a  seat  there.  My  reasons  are 
briefly  these  : 

'  I  know  his  perfect  good  affection  to  his  Majesty,  and  his  gov- 
ernment, which  I  am  certain  he  wishes  to  support  by  every  means 
in  his  power. 

'  He  possesses  a  great  share  of  manly,  nervous,  and  ready  elo- 
quence ;  is  quick  in  discerning  the  strength  and  weakness  of  an 
argument ;  can  express  himself  with  clearness  and  precision,  and 
fears  the  face  of  no  man  alive. 

'  His  known  character,  as  a  man  of  extraordinary  sense  and  un- 
impeached  virtue,  would  secure  him  the  attention  of  the  House, 
and  could  not  fail  to  give  him  a  proper  weight  there. 

acquaintance  (Mr.  Strahan,  M.P.)  callmg  on  me,  after  having  just  been 
at  the  Treasury,  showed  me  what  he  styled  a  pretty  thing,  for  a  friend 
of  his;  it  was  an  order  for  /150,  payable  to  Dr.  Johnson,  said  to  be 
one  half  of  his  yearly  pension.' 
'  See /<7i-/,  July  27,  1778. 
Hawkins  {Life,  p.  513)  says  that  Mr.  Thrale  made  the  same  at- 
tempt. '  He  had  two  meetings  with  the  ministry,  who  at  first  seemed 
inclined  to  find  Johnson  a  seat.'  '  Lord  Stowell  told  me,'  says  Mr. 
Croker, '  that  it  was  understood  amongst  Johnson's  friends  that  Lord 
North  was  afraid  that  Johnson's  help  (as  he  himself  said  of  Lord 
Chesterfield's)  might  have  been  sometimes  embarrassing.  "  He  per- 
haps thought,  and  not  unreasonably,"  added  Lord  Stowell,  "that,  like 
the  elephant  in  the  battle,  he  was  quite  as  likely  to  trample  down  his 
friends  as  his  foes." '  Lord  Stowell  referred  to  Johnson's  letter  to 
Chesterfield  {ante,  i.  304),  in  which  he  describes  a  patron  as  'one  who 
encumbers  a  man  with  help.' 

'He 


Aetat.  63.]     A  seat  in  Parliament  for  Johnson.  159 

'  He  is  capable  of  the  greatest  application,  and  can  undergo  any 
degree  of  labour,  where  he  sees  it  necessary,  and  where  his  heart 
and  affections  are  strongly  engaged.  His  Majesty's  ministers 
might  therefore  securely  depend  on  his  doing,  upon  every  proper 
occasion,  the  utmost  that  could  be  expected  from  him.  They  would 
find  him  ready  to  vindicate  such  measures  as  tended  to  promote 
the  stability  of  government,  and  resolute  and  steady  in  carrying 
them  into  execution.  Nor  is  any  thing  to  be  apprehended  from 
the  supposed  impetuosity  of  his  temper.  To  the  friends  of  the 
King  you  will  find  him  a  lamb,  to  his  enemies  a  lion. 

'  For  these  reasons,  I  humbly  apprehend  that  he  would  be  a  very 
able  and  useful  member.  And  I  will  venture  to  say,  the  employ- 
ment would  not  be  disagreeable  to  him ;  and  knowing,  as  I  do,  his 
strong  affection  to  the  King,  his  ability  to  serve  him  in  that  capac- 
ity, and  the  extreme  ardour  with  which  I  am  convinced  he  would 
engage  in  that  service,  I  must  repeat,  that  I  wish  most  heartily  to 
see  him  in  the  House. 

'  If  you  think  this  worthy  of  attention,  you  will  be  pleased  to 
take  a  convenient  opportunity  of  mentioning  it  to  Lord  North,  If 
his  Lordship  should  happily  approve  of  it,  I  shall  have  the  satis- 
faction of  having  been,  in  some  degree,  the  humble  instrument  of 
doing  my  country,  in  my  opinion,  a  very  essential  service.  I  know 
your  good-nature,  and  your  zeal  for  the  publick  welfare,  will  plead 
my  excuse  for  giving  you  this  trouble.  I  am,  with  the  greatest 
respect,  Sir, 

'  Your  most  obedient  and  humble  servant, 

'William  Strahan.' 
'  New-street, 

March  30,  1771.' 

This  recommendation,  we  know,  was  not  effectual ;  but 
how,  or  for  what  reason,  can  only  be  conjectured.  It  is 
not  to  be  believed  that  Mr.  Strahan  would  have  applied, 
unless  Johnson  had  approved  of  it.  I  never  heard  him 
mention  the  subject ;  but  at  a  later  period  of  his  life,  when 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  told  him  that  Mr.  Edmund  Burke 
had  said,  that  if  he  had  come  early  into  Parliament,  he 
certainly  would  have  been  the  greatest  speaker  that  ever 
was  there,  Johnson  exclaimed, '  I  should  like  to  try  my  hand 
now.' 

It  has  been  much  agitated  among  his  friends  and  others, 

whether 


i6o  Johnson  as  a  debater.  [a.d.  I77i. 


whether  he  would  have  been  a  powerful  speaker  in  Parlia- 
ment, had  he  been  brought  in  when  advanced  in  life.  I  am 
inclined  to  think  that  his  extensive  knowledge,  his  quick- 
ness and  force  of  mind,  his  vivacity  and  richness  of  expres- 
sion, his  wit  and  humour,  and  above  all  his  poignancy  of 
sarcasm,  would  have  had  great  effect  in  a  popular  assembly ; 
and  that  the  magnitude  of  his  figure,  and  striking  peculiar- 
ity of  his  manner,  would  have  aided  the  effect.  But  I  re- 
member it  was  observed  by  Mr.  Flood,  that  Johnson,  having 
been  long  used  to  sententious  brevity  and  the  short  flights 
of  conversation,  might  have  failed  in  that  continued  and 
expanded  kind  of  argument,  which  is  requisite  in  stating 
complicated  matters  in  publick  speaking;  and  as  a  proof  of 
this  he  mentioned  the  supposed  speeches  in  Parliament 
written  by  him  for  the  magazine,  none  of  which,  in  his 
opinion,  were  at  all  like  real  debates.  The  opinion  of  one 
who  was  himself  so  eminent  an  orator,  must  be  allowed  to 
have  great  weight.  It  was  confirmed  by  Sir  William  Scott, 
who  mentioned  that  Johnson  had  told  him  that  he  had 
several  times  tried  to  speak  in  the  Society  of  Arts  and 
Sciences,  but  '  had  found  he  could  not  get  on.'  From  Mr. 
William  Gerrard  Hamilton  I  have  heard  that  Johnson,  when 
observing  to  him  that  it  was  prudent  for  a  man  who  had 
not  been  accustomed  to  speak  in  publick,  to  begin  his 
speech  in  as  simple  a  manner  as  possible,  acknowledged 
that  he  rose  in  that  society  to  deliver  a  speech  which  he 
had  prepared ;  '  but,  (said  he,)  all  my  flowers  of  oratory  for- 
sook me.'  I  however  cannot  help  v/ishing,  that  he  Jiad 
'  tried  his  hand  '  in  Parliament ;  and  I  wonder  that  ministry 
did  not  make  the  experinient. 

I  at  length  renewed  a  correspondence  which  had  been  too 
long  discontinued  : — 

'To  Dr.  Johnson. 

'  Edinburgh,  April  i8,  1771. 
'My  Dear  Sir, 

'  I  can  now  fully  understand  those  intervals  of  silence  in 
your  correspondence  with  me,  which  have  often  given  me  anxiety 
and  uneasiness ;  for  although  I  am  conscious  that  my  veneration 

and 


Aetat.  62.]  Boswell  a  married  man.  1 6 1 

and  love  for  Mr.  Johnson  have  never  in  the  least  abated,  yet  I  have 
deferred  for  almost  a  year  and  a  half  to  write  to  him.'  .  .  . 

In  the  subsequent  part  of  this  letter,  I  gave  him  an  ac- 
count of  my  comfortable  life  as  a  married  man',  and  a 
lawyer  in  practice  at  the  Scotch  bar ;  invited  him  to  Scot- 
land, and  promised  to  attend  him  to  the  Highlands,  and 
Hebrides. 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq, 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  If  you  are  now  able  to  comprehend  that  I  might  neglect  to 
write  without  diminution  of  affection,  you  have  taught  me,  likewise, 
how  that  neglect  may  be  uneasily  felt  without  resentment.  I  wished 
for  your  letter  a  long  time,  and  when  it  came,  it  amply  recompensed 
the  delay.  I  never  was  so  much  pleased  as  now  with  your  account 
of  yourself ;  and  sincerely  hope,  that  between  publick  business,  nn- 
proving  studies,  and  domestick  pleasures,  neither  melancholy  nor 
caprice  will  find  any  place  for  entrance.  Whatever  philosophy  may 
determine  of  material  nature,  it  is  certainly  true  of  intellectual  nat- 
ure, that  it  abhors  a  vacinwi :  our  minds  cannot  be  empty ,  and  evil 
will  break  in  upon  them,  if  they  are  not  pre-occupied  by  good. 
My  dear  Sir,  mind  your  studies,  mind  your  business,  make  your 
lady  happy,  and  be  a  good  Christian.     After  this, 

" tristitiam  et  met  us 


Trades  protcrvis  in  mare  Creticutn 
For  tare  ve?itis'." 

'  Boswell  married  his  cousm  Margaret  Montgomene  on  Nov.  25, 
1769.  On  the  same  day  his  father  married  for  the  second  time.  Scots 
Mag.  for  1769,  p.  61 5.  Boswell,  m  his  Letter  to  tlic  People  of  Scotland 
(p.  55j,  pubhshed  in  1785,  describes  his  wife  as  'a  true  AIontgo»ierie, 
whom  I  esteem,  whom  I  love,  after  fifteen  years,  as  on  the  day  when 
she  gave  me  her  hand.'  See  his  Hebrides,  Aug.  14,  1773. 
*  '  Musis  amicus,  tristitiam  et  metus 

Tradam,  &c. 

While  in  the  Muse's  friendship  blest. 
Nor  fear,  nor  grief,  shall  break  my  rest ; 
Bear  them,  ye  vagrant  winds,  away, 
And  drown  them  in  the  Cretan  Sea.' 

Francis.     Horace,  Odes,  i.  26,  i. 
H.— II  'If 


1 62  Johnsoiis  portrait.  [a.d.  I77i. 


'  If  we  perform  our  duty,  we  shall  be  safe  and  steady, '' Sivc per\'' 
Sec,  whether  we  climb  the  Highlands,  or  are  tost  among  the  Heb- 
rides ;  and  I  hope  the  time  wiU  come  when  we  may  try  our  powers 
both  with  cliffs  and  water.  I  see  but  little  of  Lord  Elibank\  I 
know  not  why ;  perhaps  by  my  own  fault.  I  am  this  day  going 
into  Staffordshire  and  Derbyshire  for  six  weeks'. 
'  I  am,  dear  Sir, 

'  Your  most  affectionate, 

'  And  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  London,  June  20,  1771.' 

'To  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  in  Leicester-fields. 

'Dear  Sir, 

'When  I  came  to  Lichfield,  I  found  that  my  portrait'  had 
been  much  visited,  and  much  admired.  Every  man  has  a  lurking 
wish  to  appear  considerable  in  his  native  place  ,  and  I  was  pleased 
with  the  dignity  conferred  by  such  a  testimony  of  your  regard. 

'  Be  pleased,  therefore,  to  accept  the  thanks  of.  Sir,  your  most 

obliged  ,  ,       ,  , 

'  And  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 

'  Ashbourn  m  Derbyshire, 

July  17,  1771. 

'  CompUments  to  Miss  Reynolds.' 

'  Horace.     Odes,  1.  22,  5. 

"  Lord  Elibank  wrote  to  Boswell  two  years  later t— 'Old  as  I  am,  I 
shall  be  glad  to  go  five  hundred  miles  to  enjoy  a  day  of  Mr.  Johnson's 
company.'  Boswell's  Hebrides,  under  date  of  Sept.  12,  1773.  See  ib. 
Nov.  10,  2iX\di  post,  April  5,  1776. 

^  Goldsmith  wrote  to  Langton  on  Sept.  7,  1 77 1  :  —  ' Johnson  has 
been  down  upon  a  visit  to  a  country  parson.  Doctor  Taylor,  and  is 
returned  to  his  old  haunts  at  Mrs.  Thrale's.'  Goldsmith's  Misc. 
Works,  1.  93. 

^  While  Miss  Burney  was  examining  a  likeness  of  Johnson, '  he  no 
sooner  discerned  it  than  he  began  see-sawing  for  a  moment  or  two  in 
silence  ;  and  then,  with  a  ludicrous  half-laugh,  peeping  over  her  shoul- 
der, he  called  out :— "  Ah,  ha  !  Sam  Johnson  !  I  see  thee  !— and  an 
ugly  dog  thou  art!'''  Memoirs  of  Dr.  Btir?iey,  11.  180.  In  another 
passage  (p.  197),  after  describing  'the  kmdness  that  irradiated  his  aus- 
tere and  studious  features  into  the  most  pleased  and  pleasing  benig- 
nity,' as  he  welcomed  her  and  her  father  to  his  house,  she  adds  that 

'To 


Aetat.  62.]      The  revisio7i  of  the  DICTIONARY.  163 

'To  Dr.  Johnson. 

'  Edinburgh,  July  27,  1771. 
'My  Dear  Sir, 

'The  bearer  of  this,  Mr.  Beattie',  Professor  of  Moral  Phi- 
losophy at  Aberdeen,  is  desirous  of  being  introduced  to  your  ac- 
quaintance. His  genius  and  learning,  and  labours  in  the  service 
of  virtue  and  religion,  render  him  very  worthy  of  it ;  and  as  he  has 
a  high  esteem  of  your  character,  I  hope  you  will  give  him  a  favour- 
able reception.     I  ever  am,  &c. 

'James  Bosvvell.' 


'  To  Bennet  Langton,  Esq.,  at  Langton,  near  Spilsby, 
Lincolnshire. 

'  Dear  Sir, 

'  I  am  lately  returned  from  Staffordshire  and  Derbyshire. 
The  last  letter  mentions  two  others  which  you  have  written  to  me 
since  you  received  my  pamphlet.  Of  these  two  I  never  had  but 
one,  in  which  you  mentioned  a  design  of  visiting  Scotland,  and,  by 
consequence,  put  my  journey  to  Langton  out  of  my  thoughts.  My 
summer  wanderings  are  now  over,  and  I  am  engaging  in  a  very 
great  work,  the  revision  of  my  Dictionary'^ ;  from  which  I  know  not, 
at  present,  how  to  get  loose. 

'  If  you  have  observed,  or  been  told,  any  errours  or  omissions, 
you  will  do  me  a  great  favour  by  letting  me  know  them. 

'  Lady  Rothes,  I  find,  has  disappointed  you  and  herself.  Ladies 
will  have  these  tricks.  The  Queen  and  Mrs.  Thrale,  both  ladies 
of  experience,  yet  both  missed  their  reckoning  this  summer.  I 
hope,  a  few  months  will  recompence  your  uneasiness. 

'  Please  to  tell  Lady  Rothes  how  highly  I  value  the  honour  of 
her  invitation,  which  it  is  my  purpose  to  obey  as  soon  as  I  have 
disengaged  myself.  In  the  mean  time  I  shall  hope  to  hear  often 
of  her  Ladyship,  and  every  day  better  news  and  better,  till  I  hear 

a  lady  who  was  present  often  exclaimed,  '  Why  did  not  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds  paint  Dr.  Johnson  when  he  was  speaking  to  Dr.  Burney  or 
to  you  ?' 

*  'Johnson,' wrote  Beattie  from  London  on  Sept.  8  of  this  year,  'has 
been  greatly  misrepresented.  I  have  passed  .several  entire  days  with 
him,  and  found  him  extremely  agreeable.'  Beattie's  Life,  ed.  1824, 
p.  120. 

*  He  was  preparing  the  fourth  edition.     Sec  posi,  March  23,  1772. 

that 


164  Early  rising.  [a.d.  1771. 

that  you  have  both  the  happiness,  which  to  both  is  very  sincerely 

wished,  by,  Sir, 

'  Your  most  affectionate,  and 

'  Most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'Aug.  29,  1 77 1.' 

In  October  I  again  wrote  to  him,  thanking  him  for  his  last 
letter,  and  his  obliging  reception  of  Mr.  Beattie ;  informing 
him  that  I  had  been  at  Alnwick  lately,  and  had  good  accounts 
of  him  from  Dr.  Percy. 

In  his  religious  record  of  this  year,  we  observe  that  he  was 
better  than  usual,  both  in  body  and  mind,  and  better  satis- 
fied with  the  regularity  of  his  conduct '.  But  he  is  still '  try- 
ing his  ways" '  too  rigorously.  He  charges  himself  with  not 
rising  early  enough  ;  yet  he  mentions  what  was  surely  a  suf- 
ficient excuse  for  this,  supposing  it  to  be  a  duty  seriously 
required,  as  he  all  his  life  appears  to  have  thought  it,  '  One 
great  hindrance  is  want  of  rest ;  my  nocturnal  complaints 
grow  less  troublesome  towards  morning ;  and  I  am  tempted 
to  repair  the  deficiencies  of  the  night ".'  Alas !  how  hard 
would  it  be  if  this  indulgence  were  to  be  imputed  to  a  sick 
man  as  a  crime.  In  his  retrospect  on  the  following  Easter- 
Eve,  he  says, '  When  I  review  the  last  year,  I  am  able  to 
recollect  so  little  done,  that  shame  and  sorrow,  though  per- 
haps too  weakly,  come  upon  me.'  Had  he  been  judging  of 
any  one  else  in  the  same  circumstances,  how  clear  would  he 
have  been  on  the  favourable  side.  How  very  difficult,  and 
in  my  opinion  almost  constitutionally  impossible  it  was  for 
him  to  be  raised  early,  even  by  the  strongest  resolutions, 

'  '  Sept.  18,  1 77 1,  9  at  night.  I  am  now  come  to  my  sixty-third  year. 
For  the  last  year  I  have  been  slowly  recovering  both  from  the  violence 
of  my  last  illness,  and,  I  think,  from  the  general  disease  of  my  life : . . . 
some  advances  I  hope  have  been  made  towards  regularity.  I  have 
missed  church  since  Easter  only  two  Sundays. . . .  But  indolence  and 
indifference  has  [sicj  been  neither  conquered  nor  opposed.'  Pr.  aiid 
Med.  p.  104. 

^  '  Let  us  search  and  try  our  ways.'     Lamentations,  iii.  40. 

'  Pr.and  Med.\>.ioi  [105].     Boswell. 

appears 


Aetat.  G2.]  Sir  Joseph  Banks  s  goat.  165 

appears  from  a  note  in  one  of  his  little  paper-books,  (con- 
taining words  arranged  for  his  Dictionary^  written,  I  sup- 
pose, about  1753  :  'I  do  not  remember  that  since  I  left  Ox- 
ford I  ever  rose  early  by  mere  choice,  but  once  or  twice  at 
Edial,  and  two  or  three  times  for  The  Rambler!  I  think  he 
had  fair  ground  enough  to  have  quieted  his  mind  on  this 
subject,  by  concluding  that  he  was  physically  incapable  of 
Avhat  is  at  best  but  a  commodious  regulation. 

In  1772  he  was  altogether  quiescent  as  an  authour';  but 
it  will  be  found  from  the  various  evidences  which  I  shall 
bring  together  that  his  mind  was  acute,  lively,  and  vigorous. 

'To  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 
'  Dear  Sir, 

'  Be  pleased  to  send  to  Mr.  Banks,  whose  place  of  residence 

I  do  not  know,  this  note,  which  I  have  sent  open,  that,  if  you  please, 

you  may  read  it. 

'  When  you  send  it,  do  not  use  your  own  seal. 

'  I  am.  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

.  tr  T,    -    —    .  '  Sam.  ToHxNSOn.' 

'  Feb.  27,  1772.  ■' 

'To  Joseph  Banks,  Esq. 

"  Pcrpetua  amhitct  his  fcrrd  prce7nia  lactis 
Hicc  habd  altrici  Capra  secunda  yovis"^." 
'Sir, 

'  I  return  thanks  to  you  and  to  Dr.  Solander  for  the  pleasure 

'  Boswell  forgets  the  fourth  edition  of  his  Dictionary.  Johnson,  in 
Aug.  1 77 1  {ante,  ii.  163),  wrote  to  Langton  : — '  I  am  engaging  m  a  very 
great  work,  the  revision  of  my  Dictionary.'  In  Pr.  and  Med.  p.  123,  at 
Easter,  1773,  as  he  '  reviews  the  last  year,'  he  records  : — '  Of  the  spring 
and  summer  I  remember  that  I  was  able  in  those  seasons  to  examine 
and  improve  my  Dictionary,  and  was  seldom  withheld  from  the  work 
but  by  my  own  unwillingness.' 
"  Thus  translated  by  a  friend  : — 

'  In  fame  scarce  second  to  the  nurse  of  Jove, 
This  Goat,  who  twice  the  world  had  traversed  round, 
Deserving  both  her  master's  care  and  love, 
Ease  and  perpetual  pasture  now  has  found.' 

BOSWELL. 

which 


1 66  A  Scotch  schoohnasters  cause.        [a.d.  1772. 


which  I  received  in  yesterday's  conversation.  I  could  not  recollect 
a  motto  for  your  Goat,  but  have  given  her  one.  You,  Sir,  may  per- 
haps have  an  epick  poem  from  some  happier  pen  than,  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  Johnson's-court,  Fleet-street, 
Feb.  27,  1772.' 

'To  Dr.  Johnson. 
'My  Dear  Sir, 

'  It  is  hard  that  I  cannot  prevail  on  you  to  write  to  me  oft- 
ener.  But  I  am  convinced  that  it  is  in  vain  to  expect  from  you 
a  private  correspondence  with  any  regularity.  I  must,  therefore, 
look  upon  you  as  a  fountain  of  wisdom,  from  whence  few  rills  are 
communicated  to  a  distance,  and  which  must  be  approached  at  its 

source,  to  partake  fully  of  its  virtues. 

******** 

'  I  am  coming  to  London  soon,  and  am  to  appear  in  an  appeal 
from  the  Court  of  Session  in  the  House  of  Lords.  A  schoolmaster 
in  Scotland  was,  by  a  court  of  inferiour  jurisdiction,  deprived  of 
his  office,  for  being  somewhat  severe  in  the  chastisement  of  his 
scholars  \  The  Court  of  Session,  considering  it  to  be  dangerous 
to  the  interest  of  learning  and  education,  to  lessen  the  dignity  of 
teachers,  and  make  them  afraid  of  too  indulgent  parents,  instigated 
by  the  complaints  of  their  children,  restored  him.  His  enemies 
have  appealed  to  the  House  of  Lords,  though  the  salary  is  only 
twenty  pounds  a  year.  I  was  Counsel  for  him  here.  I  hope  there 
will  be  little  fear  of  a  reversal ,  but  I  must  beg  to  have  your  aid 
in  my  plan  of  supporting  the  decree.     It  is  a  general  question,  and 

not  a  point  of  particular  law. 

******** 

'  I  am,  &c., 

'James  Boswell.' 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  That  you  are  coming  so  soon  to  town  I  am  very  glad ;  and 
still  more  glad  that  you  are  coming  as   an  advocate.     I  think 

•  Cockburn  {Life  of  Jeffrey,  i.  4)  says  that  the  High  School  of  Edin- 
burgh, in  1 78 1,  'was  cursed  by  two  under  masters,  whose  atrocities 
young  men  cannot  be  made  to  believe,  but  old  men  cannot  forget, 
and  the  criminal  law  would  not  now  endure.' 

nothing 


Aetat.  63.]  Beat  ties  College,  167 

nothing  more  likely  to  make  your  life  pass  happily  away,  than  that 
consciousness  of  your  own  value,  which  eminence  in  your  profession 
will  certainly  confer.  If  I  can  give  you  any  collateral  help,  I  hope 
you  do  not  suspect  that  it  will  be  wanting.  My  kindness  for  you 
has  neither  the  merit  of  singular  virtue,  nor  the  reproach  of  singular 
prejudice.  Whether  to  love  you  be  right  or  wrong,  I  have  many 
on  my  side  :  Mrs.  Thrale  loves  you,  and  Mrs.  Williams  loves  you, 
and  what  would  have  inclined  me  to  love  you,  if  I  had  been  neutral 
before,  you  are  a  great  favourite  of  Dr.  Beattie. 

'  Of  Dr.  Beattie  I  should  have  thought  much,  but  that  his  lady 
puts  him  out  of  my  head ;  she  is  a  very  lovely  woman. 

'  The  ejection  which  you  come  hither  to  oppose,  appears  very 
cruel,  unreasonable,  and  oppressive.  I  should  think  there  could 
not  be  much  doubt  of  your  success. 

'  ]\Iy  health  grows  better,  yet  I  am  not  fully  recovered.  I  believe 
it  is  held,  that  men  do  not  recover  very  fast  after  threescore.  I 
hope  yet  to  see  Beattie's  College  :  and  have  not  given  up  the  west- 
ern voyage.  But  however  all  this  may  be  or  not,  let  us  try  to  make 
each  other  happy  when  we  meet,  and  not  refer  our  pleasure  to  dis- 
tant times  or  distant  places. 

'  How  comes  it  that  you  tell  me  nothing  of  your  lady  ?     I  hope 

to  see  her  some  time,  and  till  then  shall  be  glad  to  hear  of  her. 

'  I  am,  dear  Sir,  &c. 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  March  15,  1772.' 

'To  Bennet  Langton,  Esq.,  near  Spilsby,  Lincolnshire. 

'Dear  Sir, 

'  I  congratulate  you  and  Lady  Rothes '  on  your  little  man, 
and  hope  you  will  all  be  many  years  happy  together. 

'  Poor  Miss  Langton  can  have  little  part  in  the  joy  of  her  family. 
She  this  day  called  her  aunt  Langton  to  receive  the  sacrament  with 
her  ,  and  made  me  talk  yesterday  on  such  subjects  as  suit  her  con- 
dition. It  will  probably  be  her  viaiicutn.  I  surely  need  not  men- 
tion again  that  she  wishes  to  see  her  mother.     I  am.  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'Sam.  Johnson.' 
'March  14,  1772.' 

On  the  2 1st  of  March,  I  was  happy  to  find  myself  again 

'  Mr.  Langton  married  the  Countess  Dowager  of  Rothes.    Bosweli,. 

in 


1 68  Obstinacy  and  severity.  [a.d.  1773. 

in  my  friend's  study,  and  was  glad  to  see  my  old  acquaint- 
ance, Mr.  Francis  Barber,  who  was  now  returned  home '.  Dr. 
Johnson  received  me  with  a  hearty  welcome ;  saying,  '  I  am 
glad  you  are  come,  and  glad  you  are  come  upon  such  an 
errand :'  (alluding  to  the  cause  of  the  schoolmaster.)  BOS- 
WELL.  '  I  hope.  Sir,  he  will  be  in  no  danger.  It  is  a  very 
delicate  matter  to  interfere  between  a  master  and  his  schol- 
ars :  nor  do  I  see  how  you  can  fix  the  degree  of  severity  that 
a  master  may  use.'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir,  till  you  can  fix 
the  degree  of  obstinacy  and  negligence  of  the  scholars,  you 
cannot  fix  the  degree  of  severity  of  the  master.  Severity 
must  be  continued  until  obstinacy  be  subdued,  and  negli- 
gence be  cured.'  He  mentioned  the  severity  of  Hunter,  his 
own  master\  'Sir,  (said  I,)  Hunter  is  a  Scotch  name:  so  it 
should  seem  this  schoolmaster  who  beat  you  so  severely  was 
a  Scotchman.  I  can  now  account  for  your  prejudice  against 
the  Scotch.'  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  he  was  not  Scotch;  and  abat- 
ing his  brutality,  he  was  a  very  good  master  ^' 

We  talked  of  his  two  political  pamphlets,  TJie  False 
Alarm,  and  Thoughts  concerning  Falklancfs  Islands.  JOHN- 
SON. 'Well,  Sir,  which  of  them  did  you  think  the  best?' 
BOSWELL.  'I  liked  the  second  best.'  JOHNSON.  'Why, 
Sir,  I  liked  the  first  best ;  and  Beattie  liked  the  first  best. 
Sir,  there  is  a  subtlety  of  disquisition  in  the  first,  that  is 
worth  all  the  fire  of  the  second.'  BosWELL.  '  Pray,  Sir,  is 
it  true  that  Lord  North  paid  you  a  visit,  and  that  you  got 
two  hundred  a  year  in  addition  to  your  pension?'  JOHN- 
SON. '  No,  Sir.     Except  what  I  had  from  the  bookseller,  I 


'  From  school.     See  «;;/<:',  ii.  71.  "^  See  rtw/f,  1.  51. 

^  Johnson  used  to  say  that  schoolmasters  were  worse  than  the  Egyp- 
tian task-masters  of  old.  '  No  boy,"  says  he, '  is  sure  any  day  he  goes 
to  school  to  escape  a  whipping.  How  can  the  schoolm.aster  tell  what 
the  boy  has  really  forgotten,  and  what  he  has  neglected  to  learn  }' 
Johnson's  Works  (1787),  xi.  209.  '  I  rejoice,'  writes  J.  S.  Mill  {Auto. 
p.  53), '  in  the  decline  of  the  old,  brutal,  and  tyrannical  system  of  teach- 
ing, which,  however,  did  succeed  in  enforcing  habits  of  application ; 
but  the  new,  as  it  seems  to  me,  is  training  up  a  race  of  men  who  will 
be  incapable  of  doing  anything  which  is  disagreeable  to  them.' 

did 


Aetat.  63.J  Lord  North.  169 

did  not  get  a  farthing  by  them '.  And,  between  you  and 
me,  I  believe  Lord  North  is  no  friend  to  me.'  BOSWELL. 
'How  so.  Sir?'  Johnson.  '  Why,  Sir,  you  cannot  account 
for  the  fancies  of  men.  Well,  how  does  Lord  Elibank?  and 
how  does  Lord  Monboddo?'  BoswELL.  'Very  well,  Sir. 
Lord  Monboddo  still  maintains  the  superiority  of  the  sav- 
age life^'  Johnson.  'What  strange  narrowness  of  mind 
now  is  that,  to  think  the  things  we  have  not  known,  are 
better  than  the  things  which  we  have  known.'  BoswELL. 
'Why,  Sir,  that  is  a  common  prejudice.'  JOHNSON.  'Yes, 
Sir,  but  a  common  prejudice  should  not  be  found  in  one 
whose  trade  it  is  to  rectify  errour.' 

A  gentleman  having  come  in  who  was  to  go  as  a  mate  in 
the  ship  along  with  Mr.  Banks  and  Dr.  Solander,  Dr.  John- 
son asked  what  were  the  names  of  the  ships  destined  for  the 
expedition.  The  gentleman  answered,  they  were  once  to 
be  called  the  Drake  and  the  Ralegh,  but  now  they  were  to 
be  called  the  Resolution  and  the  Adventure  \  JOHNSON. 
'Much  better;  for  had  the  Ralegh^  returned  without  going 
round  the  world,  it  would  have  been  ridiculous.  To  give 
them  the  names  of  the  Drake  and  the  Ralegh  was  laying  a 
trap  for  satire.'  BosWELL.  '  Had  not  you  some  desire  to  go 
upon  this  expedition,  Sir?'  JOHNSON.  '  Why  yes,  but  I  soon 
laid  it  aside.  Sir,  there  is  very  little  of  intellectual,  in  the 
course.  Besides,  I  see  but  at  a  small  distance.  So  it  was  not 
worth  my  while  to  go  to  see  birds  fly,  which  I  should  not  have 
seen  fly;  and  fishes  swim,  which  I  should  not  have  seen  swim.' 

'  Sec  ««/'r,  i.  431.  '  ^  See  (7;//6',  ii.  84. 

*  The  ship  in  which  Mr.  Banks  and  Dr.  Solander  were  to  have  sailed 
was  the  Endeavour.  It  was,  they  said,  unfit  for  the  voyage.  The  Ad- 
miralty altered  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  render  it  top-heavy.  It  was 
nearly  overset  on  going  down  the  river.  Then  it  was  rendered  safe 
by  restoring  it  to  its  former  condition.  When  the  explorers  raised 
their  former  objections,  they  were  told  to  take  it  or  none.  Ami.  Reg. 
XV.  108.     See  also  \^o?>^\Q\\''?,  Hebrides,  Oct.  i8,  1773. 

*  I  suspect  that  Raleigh  is  here  an  error  of  Mr.  Boswell's  pen  for 
Drake.  Crokkr.  Johnson  had  written  Drake's  Life,  and  therefore 
must  have  had  it  well  in  mind  that  it  was  Drake  who  went  round  the 
world. 

The 


1 70  Doctor  and  Mrc.  Beatiie.  [a.d.  1773. 

The  gentleman  being  gone,  and  Dr.  Johnson  having  left 
the  room  for  some  time,  a  debate  arose  between  the  Rever- 
end Mr.  Stockdale  and  Mrs.  Desmouhns,  whether  Mr.  Banks 
and  Dr.  Solander  were  entitled  to  any  share  of  glory  from 
their  expedition.  When  Dr.  Johnson  returned  to  us,  I  told 
him  the  subject  of  their  dispute.  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir,  it 
was  properly  for  botany  that  they  went  out :  I  believe  they 
thought  only  of  culling  of  simples'.' 

I  thanked  him  for  showing  civilities  to  Beattie.  '  Sir,  (said 
he,)  I  should  thank  j^??/.  We  all  love  Beattie.  Mrs.  Thrale 
says,  if  ever  she  has  another  husband,  she'll  have  Beattie. 
He  sunk  upon  us^  that  he  was  married  ;  else  we  should  have 

*  Romeo  aiid  Juliet,  act  v.  sc.  i. 

^  'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 

'MY  Dear  Sir,  '  Edinburgh,  May  3,  1792. 

'  As  I  suppose  your  great  work  will  soon  be  reprinted,  I  beg  leave 
to  trouble  you  with  a  remark  on  a  passage  of  it,  in  which  I  am  a  little 
misrepresented.  Be  not  alarmed ;  the  misrepresentation  is  not  im- 
putable to  you.  Not  having  the  book  at  hand,  I  cannot  specify  the 
page,  but  I  suppose  you  will  easily  find  it.  Dr.  Johnson  says,  speak- 
ing of  Mrs.  Thrale's  family,  "  Dr.  Beattie  sutik  np07i  tis  that  he  was 
married,  or  words  to  that  purpose."  I  am  not  sure  that  I  understand 
su7ik  upon  us,  which  is  a  very  uncommon  phrase,  but  it  seems  to  me  to 
imply,  (and  others,  I  find,  have  understood  it  in  the  same  sense,)  sht- 
diously  co7icealed from  lis  his  being  married.  Now,  Sir,  this  was  by  no 
means  the  case.  I  could  have  no  motive  to  conceal  a  circumstance, 
of  which  I  never  was  nor  can  be  ashamed  ;  and  of  which  Dr.  Johnson 
seemed  to  think,  when  he  afterwards  became  acquainted  with  Mrs. 
Beattie,  that  I  had,  as  was  true,  reason  to  be  proud.  So  far  was  I 
from  concealing  her,  that  my  wife  had  at  that  time  almost  as  numer- 
ous an  acquaintance  in  London  as  I  had  myself ;  and  was,  not  very 
long  after,  kindly  invited  and  elegantly  entertained  at  Streatham  by 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thrale. 

'  My  request,  therefore,  is,  that  you  would  rectify  this  matter  in  your 
new  edition.  You  are  at  liberty  to  make  what  use  you  please  of  this 
letter. 

'  My  best  wishes  ever  attend  you  and  your  family.  Believe  me  to 
be,  with  the  utmost  regard  and  esteem,  dear  Sir, 

'Your  obliged  and  affectionate  humble  servant,      J.  Beattie.' 

I  have,  from  my  respect  for  my  friend  Dr.  Beattie,  and  regard  to  his 

shewn 


Aetat.  63.]     Boswell  proposes  to  buy  St.  Kilda.  171 

shewn  his  lady  more  civilities.  She  is  a  very  fine  woman. 
But  how  can  you  shew  civilities  to  a  non-entity  ?  I  did  not 
think  he  had  been  married.  Nay,  I  did  not  think  about  it 
one  way  or  other ;  but  he  did  not  tell  us  of  his  lady  till  late.' 

He  then  spoke  of  St.  Kilda',  the  most  remote  of  the  Heb- 
rides. I  told  him,  I  thought  of  buying  it.  JOHNSON.  *  Pray 
do,  Sir.  We  will  go  and  pass  a  winter  amid  the  blasts  there. 
We  shall  have  fine  fish,  and  we  will  take  some  dried  ^tongues 
with  us,  and  some  books.  We  will  have  a  strong  built  ves- 
sel, and  some  Orkney  men  to  navigate  her.  We  must  build 
a  tolerable  house :  but  we  may  carry  with  us  a  wooden  house 
ready  made,  and  requiring  nothing  but  to  be  put  up.  Con- 
sider, Sir,  by  buying  St.  Kilda,  you  may  keep  the  people 
from  falling  into  worse  hands.  We  must  give  them  a  cler- 
gyman, and  he  shall  be  one  of  Beattie's  choosing.  He  shall 
be  educated  at  Marischal  College.  I'll  be  your  Lord  Chan- 
cellor, or  what  you  please.'  BosWELL.  '  Are  you  serious, 
Sir,  in  advising  me  to  buy  St.  Kilda  ?  for  if  you  should  advise 
me  to  go  to  Japan,  I  believe  I  should  do  it.'  JOHNSON. 
'  Why  yes.  Sir,  I  am  serious.'  BoswELL.  '  Why  then,  I'll 
see  what  can  be  done.' 

I  gave  him  an  account  of  the  two  parties  in  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  those  for  supporting  the  rights  of  patrons,  inde- 
pendent of  the  people,  and  those  against  it.  JOHNSON.  '  It 
should  be  settled  one  way  or  other.  I  cannot  wish  well  to 
a  popular  election  of  the  clergy,  when  I  consider  that  it 
occasions  such  animosities,  such  unworthy  courting  of  the 

extreme  sensibility,  inserted  the  foregoing  letter,  though  I  cannot  but 
wonder  at  his  considering  as  any  imputation  a  phrase  commonly  used 
among  the  best  friends.  Boswell.  Mr.  Croker  says  there  was  a  cause 
for  the  '  extreme  sensibility.'  '  Dr.  Beattie  was  conscious  that  there 
was  something  that  might  give  a  colour  to  such  an  imputation.  It 
became  known,  shortly  after  the  date  of  this  letter,  that  the  mind  of 
Mrs.  Beattie  had  become  deranged.'  Beattie  would  have  found  in 
Johnson's  Dictionary  an  explanation  of  sunk  upon  us — '  To  sink.  To 
suppress;  to  conceal.'  'If  sent  with  ready  money  to  buy  anything, 
and  you  happen  to  be  out  of  pocket,  sink  the  money  and  take  up  the 
goods  on  account.'  Swift's  Rules  to  Servants,  Works,  viii.  256. 
'  See  a7ite,  i.  521. 

people, 


172  Evidence  for  spirit.  [a.d.  1773. 

people,  such  slanders  between  the  contenduig  parties,  and 
other  disadvantages.  It  is  enough  to  allow  the  people  to 
remonstrate  against  the  nomination  of  a  minister  for  solid 
reasons.'     (I  suppose  he  meant  heresy  or  immorality.) 

He  was  engaged  to  dine  abroad,  and  asked  me  to  return 
to  him  in  the  evening,  at  nine,  which  I  accordingly  did. 

We  drank  tea  with  Mrs.  Williams,  who  told  us  a  story  of 
second  sight ',  which  happened  in  Wales  where  she  was  born. 
He  listened  to  it  very  attentively,  and  said  he  should  be  glad 
to  have  some  instances  of  that  faculty  well  authenticated. 
His  elevated  wish  for  more  and  more  evidence  for  spirit  \  in 
opposition  to  the  groveling  belief  of  materialism,  led  him  to 
a  love  of  such  mysterious  disquisitions.  He  again  ^  justly 
observed,  that  we  could  have  no  certainty  of  the  truth  of  su- 
pernatural appearances,  unless  something  was  told  us  which 
we  could  not  know  by  ordinary  means,  or  something  done 
which  could  not  be  done  but  by  supernatural  power;  that 
Pharaoh  in  reason  and  justice  required  such  evidence  from 
Moses;  nay,  that  our  Saviour  said, '  If  I  had  not  done  among 
them  the  works  which  none  other  man  did,  they  had  not  had 
sin  \'  He  had  said  in  the  morning,  that  Macaulay's  History 
of  St.  Kilda,  was  very  well  written,  except  some  foppery 
about  liberty  and  slavery.  I  mentioned  to  him  that  Macau- 
lay  told  me,  he  was  advised  to  leave  out  of  his  book  the 
wonderful  story  that  upon  the  approach  of  a  stranger  all  the 
inhabitants  catch  cold^;  but  that  it  had  been  so  well  authen- 
ticated, he  determined  to  retain  it.  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  to  leave 
things  out  of  a  book,  merely  because  people  tell  you  they 
will  not  be  believed,  is  meanness.  Macaulay  acted  with  more 
magnanimity.' 

We  talked  of  the  Roman  Catholick  religion,  and  how  little 
difference  there  was  in  essential  matters  between  ours  and  it. 
Johnson.  'True,  Sir;  all  denominations  of  Christians  have 

'  See  ante,  ii.  12. 

"^  See  post,  April  15,  1778,  note,  and  June  12,  1784. 

^  See  ante,  i.  469. 

*  St.JoJm,  XV.  24. 

*  See  note,  p.  58  of  this  volume.     Boswell. 

really 


Aetat,  63.]  Subscription  to  the  Articles.  173 

really  little  difference  in  point  of  doctrine,  though  they  may 
differ  widely  in  external  forms.  There  is  a  prodigious  dif- 
ference between  the  external  form  of  one  of  your  Presbyte- 
rian churches  in  Scotland,  and  a  church  in  Italy ;  yet  the 
doctrine  taught  is  essentially  the  same '.' 

I  mentioned  the  petition  to  Parliament  for  removing  the 
subscription  to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles^  JOHNSON.  'It 
w^as  soon  thrown  out.  Sir,  they  talk  of  not  making  boys  at 
the  University  subscribe  to  what  they  do  not  understand ' ; 
but  they  ought  to  consider,  that  our  Universities  were  found- 
ed to  bring  up  members  for  the  Church  of  England,  and  we 
must  not  supply  our  enemies  with  arms  from  our  arsenal. 
No,  Sir,  the  meaning  of  subscribing  is,  not  that  they  fully 
understand  all  the  articles,  but  that  they  will  adhere  to  the 
Church  of  England  \  Now  take  it  in  this  way,  and  suppose 
that  they  should  only  subscribe  their  adherence  to  the  Church 
of  England,  there  would  be  still  the  same  difficulty  ;  for  still 
the  young  men  would  be  subscribing  to  what  they  do  not 
understand.  For  if  you  should  ask  them,  what  do  you  mean 
by  the  Church  of  England?    Do  you  know  in  what  it  differs 

'  See  ante,  ii.  121. 

^  The  petition  was  presented  on  Feb.  6  of  this  year.  By  a  majority 
of  217  to  71  leave  was  refused  for  it  to  be  brought  up.  Pari.  Hist.  xvii. 
245-297.  Gibbon,  in  a  letter  dated  Feb.  8,  1772  {Misc.  Works,  ii.  74), 
congratulates  Mr.  Holroyd  'on  the  late  victory  of  our  dear  mamma, 
the  Church  of  England.  She  had,  last  Thursday,  71  rebelHous  sons, 
who  pretended  to  set  aside  her  will  on  account  of  insanity;  but  217 
worthy  champions,  headed  by  Lord  North,  Burke,  and  Charles  Fox, 
though  they  allowed  the  thirty-nine  clauses  of  her  testament  were 
absurd  and  unreasonable,  supported  the  validity  of  it  with  infinite 
humour.  By  the  by,  Charles  Fox  prepared  himself  for  that  holy  war 
by  passing  twenty-two  hours  in  the  pious  exercise  of  hazard  ;  his  de- 
votion cost  him  only  about  ^500  per  hour — in  all,  £1 1,000.'  Sec  ^os- 
■weW's  I  Mr  idt's,  Aug.  19,  1773. 

'  '  Lord  George  Germayne,'  writes  Horace  Walpole,  '  said  that  he 
wondered  the  House  did  not  take  some  steps  on  this  subject  with 
regard  to  the  Universities,  where  boys  were  made  to  subscribe  the 
Articles  without  reading  them — a  scandalous  abuse.'  Joitrnal  of  the 
Reign  of  George  III,  i.  1 1. 

*  See  ante,  ii.  119. 

from 


1 74       Fast  Sermon  of  the  2,0th  of  January,     [a.d.  1772. 

from  the  Presbyterian  Church?  from  the  Romish  Church? 
from  the  Greek  Church  ?  from  the  Coptick  Church  ?  they 
could  not  tell  you.  So,  Sir,  it  comes  to  the  same  thing.' 
BOSWELL.  '  But,  would  it  not  be  sufficient  to  subscribe  the 
Bible'?'  Johnson.  'Why  no,  Sir;  for  all  sects  will  sub- 
scribe the  Bible  ;  nay,  the  Mahometans  will  subscribe  the 
Bible;  for  the  Mahometans  acknowledge  Jesus  CHRIST,  as 
well  as  Moses,  but  maintain  that  GOD  sent  Mahomet  as  a 
still  greater  prophet  than  either.' 

I  mentioned  the  motion  which  had  been  made  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  to  abolish  the  fast  of  the  30th  of  Jan- 
uary*. Johnson.  'Why,  Sir,  I  could  have  wished  that  it 
had  been  a  temporary  act,  perhaps,  to  have  expired  with  the 
century.  I  am  against  abolishing  it ;  because  that  would  be 
declaring  it  wrong  to  establish  it ;  but  I  should  have  no  ob- 
jection to  make  an  act,  continuing  it  for  another  century, 
and  then  letting  it  expire.' 

'  Burke  had  thus  answered  Boswell's  proposal:  —  'What  is  that 
Scripture  to  which  they  are  content  to  subscribe  ?  The  Bible  is  a 
vast  collection  of  different  treatises ;  a  man  who  holds  the  divine  au- 
thority of  one  may  consider  the  other  as  merely  human.  Therefore, 
to  ascertain  Scripture  you  must  have  one  Article  more,  and  you  must 
define  what  that  Scripture  is  which  you  mean  to  teach.'  Pari.  Hist. 
xvii.  284. 

"^  Dr.  Nowell  {post,  June  ii,  1784)  had  this  year  preached  the  fast 
sermon  before  the  House  of  Commons  on  Jan.  30,  the  anniversary  of 
the  execution  of  Charles  I,  and  received  the  usual  vote  of  thanks. 
Pari.  Hist.  xvii.  245.  On  Feb.  25  the  entry  of  the  vote  was,  without  a 
division,  ordered  to  be  expunged.  On  the  publication  of  the  sermon 
it  had  been  seen  that  Nowell  had  asserted  that  George  III  was  en- 
dued with  the  same  virtues  as  Charles  I,  and  that  the  members  of  the. 
House  were  the  descendants  of  those  who  had  opposed  that  King.  lb. 
p.  313,  7Vi\^  An7i.  Reg.  xv.  79.  On  March  2,  Mr.  Montague  moved  for 
leave  to  bring  in  a  bill  to  abolish  the  fast,  but  it  was  refused  by  125  to 
97.  Pari.  Hist.  xvii.  319.  The  fast  was  abolished  in  1859 — thirteen 
years  within  the  century  that  Johnson  was  ready  to  allow  it.  '  It  is 
remarkable,'  writes  Horace  Walpole,  'that  George  III  had  never  from 
the  beginning  of  his  reign  gone  to  church  on  the  30th  of  January, 
whereas  George  II  always  did.'  Journal  of  the  Reign  of  George  III, 
i.41. 

He 


Aetat.  63.]  The  Royal  Marriage  Bill.  1 75 

He  disapproved  of  the  Royal  Marriage  Bill ;  '  Because, 
(said  he,)  I  would  not  have  the  people  think  that  the  validity 
of  marriage  depends  on  the  will  of  man,  or  that  the  right  of 
a  King  depends  on  the  will  of  man,  I  should  not  have  been 
against  making  the  marriage  of  any  of  the  royal  family  without 
the  approbation  of  King  and  Parliament,  highly  criminar.' 

In  the  morning  we  had  talked  of  old  families,  and  the 
respect  due  to  them.  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  you  have  a  right  to 
that  kind  of  respect,  and  are  arguing  for  yourself.  I  am  for 
supporting  the  principle,  and  am  disinterested  in  doing  it,  as 
I  have  no  such  right '".'  BOSWELL.  '  Why,  Sir,  it  is  one  more 
incitement  to  a  man  to  do  well.'  JOHNSON.  '  Yes,  Sir,  and 
it  is  a  matter  of  opinion,  very  necessary  to  keep  society  to- 
gether. What  is  it  but  opinion,  by  which  we  have  a  respect 
for  authority,  that  prevents  us,  who   are  the  rabble,  from 

'  This  passage  puzzled  Mr.  Croker  and  Mr.  Lockhart.  The  follow- 
ing extract  from  the  Gent.  Mag.  for  Feb.  1772,  p.  92,  throws  light  on 
Johnson's  meaning  : — '  This,  say  the  opposers  of  the  Bill,  is  putting  it 
in  the  King's  power  to  change  the  order  of  succession,  as  he  may  for 
ever  prevent,  if  he  is  so  minded,  the  elder  branches  of  the  family  from 
marrying,  and  therefore  may  establish  the  succession  in  the  younger. 
Be  this  as  it  may,  is  it  not,  in  fact,  converting  the  holy  institution  of 
marriage  into  a  mere  state  contract.'*'  See  also  the  Protest  of  four- 
teen of  the  peers  in  Pari.  Hist.  xvii.  391,  and  post,  April  1 5,  1773.  Hor- 
ace Walpole  ends  his  account  of  the  Marriage  Bill  by  saying : — '  Thus 
within  three  weeks  were  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  affirmed  and  the 
New  Testament  deserted.'  Joiir7ial  of  the  Reign  of  George  III,  i.  37. 
How  carelessly  this  Act  was  drawn  was  shown  by  Lord  Eldon,  when 
Attorney-General,  in  the  case  of  the  marriage  of  the  Duke  of  Sussex 
to  Lady  Augusta  Murray.  '  Lord  Thurlow  said  to  me  angrily  at  the 
Privy  Council, "  Sir,  why  have  you  not  prosecuted  under  the  Act  of 
Parliament  all  the  parties  concerned  in  this  abominable  marriage  ?" 
To  which  I  answered,  "  That  it  was  a  very  difficult  business  to  prose- 
cute— that  the  Act  had  been  drawn  by  Lord  Mansfield  and  Mr.  Attor- 
ney-General ThurloTu,  and  Mr.  Solicitor-General  Wcddcrburne,  and 
unluckily  they  had  made  all  parties  present  at  the  marriage  guilty  of 
felony ;  and  as  nobody  could  prove  the  marriage  except  a  person  who 
had  been  present  at  it,  there  could  be  no  prosecution,  because  nobody 
present  could  be  compelled  to  be  a  witness."  This  put  an  end  to  the 
matter.'     Twiss's  Eldon,  i.  234. 

'  Sqc  post,  May  9,  1773,  and  May  13,  1778. 

risincf 


176  Respect  for  the  old  families.  [a.d.  1772. 

rising  up  and  pulling  down  you  who  are  gentlemen  from  your 
places,  and  saying  "We  will  be  gentlemen  in  our  turn"? 
Now,  Sir,  that  respect  for  authority  is  much  more  easily 
granted  to  a  man  whose  father  has  had  it,  than  to  an  up- 
start ',  and  so  Society  is  more  easily  supported.'  Bosweli.. 
*  Perhaps,  Sir,  it  might  be  done  by  the  respect  belonging  to 
office,  as  among  the  Romans,  where  the  dress,  the  toga,  in- 
spired reverence.'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  we  know  very  little 
about  the  Romans.  But,  surely,  it  is  much  easier  to  respect 
a  man  who  has  always  had  respect,  than  to  respect  a  man 
who  we  know  was  last  year  no  better  than  ourselves,  and 
will  be  no  better  next  year.  In  republicks  there  is  not  a 
respect  for  authority,  but  a  fear  of  power.'  BOSWELL.  'At 
present,  Sir,  I  think  riches  seem  to  gain  most  respect.'  JOHN- 
SON. *  No,  Sir,  riches  do  not  gain  hearty  respect ;  they  only 
procure  external  attention.  A  very  rich  man,  from  low  be- 
ginnings, may  buy  his  election  in  a  borough ;  but,  ca;teris 
paribus,  a  man  of  family  will  be  preferred.  People  will  pre- 
fer a  man  for  whose  father  their  fathers  have  voted,  though 
they  should  get  no  more  money,  or  even  less.  That  shows 
that  the  respect  for  family  is  not  merely  fanciful,  but  has  an 
actual  operation.  If  gentlemen  of  family  would  allow  the 
rich  upstarts  to  spend  their  money  profusely,  which  they  are 
ready  enough  to  do,  and  not  vie  with  them  in  expence,  the 
upstarts  would  soon  be  at  an  end,  and  the  gentlemen  would 
remain :  but  if  the  gentlemen  will  vie  in  expence  with  the 
upstarts,  which  is  very  foolish,  they  must  be  ruined.' 

I  gave  him  an  account  of  the  excellent  mimickry  of  a  friend 
of  mine  in  Scotland^ ;  observing,  at  the  same  time,  that  some 

'  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  25,  1773,  where  Johnson,  discussing 
the  same  question,  says : — '  There  is  generally  a  scoiifidrelism  about  a 
low  man.' 

^  Mackintosh  told  Mr.  Croker  that  this  friend  was  Mr.  Cullen,  after- 
wards a  judge  by  the  name  of  Lord  Cullen.  In  Bosivelltaiia  (pp. 
250-2),  Boswell  mentions  him  thrice,  and  always  as  '  Cullen  the  mim- 
ick.'  His  manner,  he  says,  was  wretched,  and  his  physiognomy  worse 
than  Wilkes's.  Dr.  A.  Carlyle  {Atiio.  p.  268)  says  that  '  Cullen  pos- 
sessed the  talent  of  mimicry  beyond  all  mankind ,  for  his  was  not 

people 


Aetat.  63.]  Mimickry.  177 

people  thought  it  a  very  mean  thing.  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir, 
it  is  making  a  very  mean  use  of  a  man's  powers.  But  to  be 
a  good  mimick,  requires  great  powers ;  great  acuteness  of 
observation,  great  retention  of  what  is  observed,  and  great 
pHancy  of  organs,  to  represent  what  is  observed.  I  remem- 
ber a  lady  of  quality  in  this  town.  Lady ,  who 

was  a  wonderful  mimick,  and  used  to  make  me  laugh  immod- 
erately. I  hav-e  heard  she  is  now  gone  mad.'  BoswELL. 
'  It  is  am.azing  how  a  mimick  can  not  only  give  you  the  gest- 
ures and  voice  of  a  person  whom  he  represents ;  but  even 
what  a  person  would  say  on  any  particular  subject.'  JOHN- 
SON. '  Why,  Sir,  you  are  to  consider  that  the  manner  and 
some  particular  phrases  of  a  person  do  much  to  impress  you 
with  an  idea  of  him,  and  you  are  not  sure  that  he  would  say 
what  the  mimick  says  in  his  character.'  BosWELL.  '  I  don't 
think  Foote'  a  good  mimick.  Sir.'  JOHNSON.  'No,  Sir;  his 
imitations  are  not  like.  He  gives  you  something  different 
from  himself,  but  not  the  character  which  he  means  to  as- 
sume. He  goes  out  of  himself,  without  going  into  other 
people.  He  cannot  take  off  any  person  unless  he  is  strongly 
marked,  such  as  George  Faulkner °.  He  is  like  a  painter, 
who  can  draw  the  portrait  of  a  man  who  has  a  w^en  upon  his 
face,  and  who,  therefore,  is  easily  known.  If  a  man  hops 
upon  one  leg,  Foote  can  hop  upon  one  leg\    But  he  has  not 

merely  an  exact  imitation  of  voice  and  manner  of  speaking,  but  a  per- 
fect exhibition  of  every  man's  manner  of  thinking  on  every  subject.' 
Carlyle  mentions  two  striking  instances  of  this. 

'  S^G.  post.  May  15, 1776. 

''■  '  The  prince  of  Dublin  printers,'  as  Swift  called  him.  Swift's 
Works  (1803),  xviii.  288.  He  was  taken  off  by  Foote  under  the  name 
of  Peter  Paragraph,  in  The  Orators,  the  piece  in  which  he  had  meant 
to  take  off  Johnson  (ante,  ii.  109).  '  Faulkner  consoled  himself  (pend- 
ing his  prosecution  of  the  libeller)  by  printing  the  libel,  and  selling  it 
most  extensively.'  Forster's  Goldsmith,  i.  287.  See  Boswell's  Hebri- 
des, Aug.  29. 

^  Faulkner  had  lost  one  of  his  legs.  '  When  Foote  had  his  accident 
(a7ite,  ii.  109),  "  Now  I  shall  take  off  old  Faulkner  indeed  to  the  life," 
was  the  first  remark  he  made  when  what  he  had  to  suffer  was  an- 
nounced to  him.'     Forster's  Essays,  ii.  400. 

II.— 12  that 


1 75  Revision  of  the  Dictionary.         [a.d,  1772. 

that  nice  discrimination  which  your  friend  seems  to  possess. 
Foote  is,  however,  very  entertaining,  with  a  kind  of  conver- 
sation between  wit  and  buffoonery'.' 

On  Monday,  March  23,  I  found  him  busy,  preparing  a 
fourth  edition  of  his  foho  Dictionary.  Mr.  Peyton,  one  of 
his  original  amanuenses,  was  writing  for  him.  I  put  him  in 
mind  of  a  meaning  of  the  word  side,  which  he  had  omitted, 
viz.  relationship ;  as  father's  side,  mother's  side.  He  inserted 
it.  I  asked  him  if  Juiuiiliating  was  a  good  word.  He  said, 
he  had  seen  it  frequently  used,  but  he  did  not  know  it  to  be 
legitimate  English.  He  would  not  admit  civilization,  but 
only  civility"^.  With  great  deference  to  him,  I  thought  civ- 
ilization, from  to  civilize  better  in  the  sense  opposed  to  bar- 
barity, than  civility ;  as  it  is  better  to  have  a  distinct  word 
for  each  sense,  than  one  word  with  two  senses,  which  civility 
is,  in  his  way  of  using  it. 

He  seemed  also  to  be  intent  on  some  sort  of  chymical 
operation.  I  was  entertained  by  observing  how  he  con- 
trived to  send  Mr.  Peyton  on  an  errand,  without  seeming  to 
degrade  him.  '  Mr.  Peyton, — Mr.  Peyton,  will  you  be  so  good 
as  to  take  a  walk  to  Temple-Bar?  You  will  there  see  a  chym- 
ist's  shop  ;  at  which  you  will  be  pleased  to  buy  for  me  an 


'  A  writer  in  the  Monthly  Revie%v,  Ixxvi.  374  (no  doubt  Murphy), 
says  : — '  A  large  number  of  friends  such  as  Johnson,  Mr.  Burke,  and 
Mr.  Murphy  dined  at  Garrick's  at  Christmas,  1760.  Foote  was  then 
in  DubUn.  It  was  said  at  table  that  he  had  been  horsewhipped  by  an 
apothecary  for  taking  him  off  upon  the  stage.  "  But  I  ■(vender,"  said 
Garrick,  "  that  any  man  would  show  so  much  resentment  to  Foote ; 
nobody  ever  thought  it  worth  his  while  to  quarrel  with  him  in  Lon- 
don." "  And  I  am  glad,"  said  Johnson,  "  to  find  that  the  man  is  rising 
in  the  world."  The  anecdote  was  afterwards  told  to  Foote,  who  in 
return  gave  out  that  he  would  in  a  short  time  produce  the  Caliban  of 
literature  on  the  stage.  Being  informed  of  this  design,  Johnson  sent 
word  to  Foote,  that,  the  theatre  being  intended  for  the  reformation  of 
vice,  he  would  go  from  the  boxes  on  the  stage,  and  correct  him  before 
the  audience.     Foote  abandoned  the  design.     No  ill-will  ensued.' 

"^  S&e.  post,  May  15,  1776,  where  Johnson  says: — 'I  turned  Boswell 
loose  at  Lichfield,  my  native  city,  that  he  might  see  for  once  real 
civility.' 

ounce 


Aetat.  63.]  One  original  language.  1 79 

ounce  of  oil  of  vitriol ;  not  spirit  of  vitriol,  but  oil  of  vitriol. 
It  will  cost  three  half-pence.'  Peyton  immediately  went, 
and  returned  with  it,  and  told  him  it  cost  but  a  penny. 

I  then  reminded  him  of  the  schoolmaster's  cause,  and  pro- 
posed to  read  to  him  the  printed  papers  concerning  it.  '  No, 
Sir,  (said  he,)  I  can  read  quicker  than  I  can  hear.'  So  he 
read  them  to  himself. 

After  he  had  read  for  some  time,  we  were  interrupted  by 
the  entrance  of  Mr.  Kristrom,  a  Swede,  who  was  tutor  to 
some  young  gentlemen  in  the  city.  He  told  me,  that  there 
was  a  very  good  History  of  Sweden,  by  Daline.  Having  at 
that  time  an  intention  of  writing  the  history  of  that  coun- 
tr>'',  I  asked  Dr.  Johnson  whether  one  might  write  a  history 
of  Sweden,  without  going  thither.  '  Yes,  Sir,  (said  he,)  one 
for  common  use.' 

We  talked  of  languages.  Johnson  observed,  that  Leibnitz 
had  made  some  progress  in  a  work,  tracing  all  languages  up 
to  the  Hebrew.  '  Why,  Sir,  (said  he,)  you  would  not  imagine 
that  the  French /(^//r,  day,  is  derived  from  the  Latin  dies,  and 
yet  nothing  is  more  certain  ;  and  the  intermediate  steps  are 
very  clear.  From  dies,  comes  diurnus.  Diit  is,  by  inaccurate 
ears,  or  inaccurate  pronunciation,  easily  confounded  \v\\.\\giu; 
then  the  Italians  form  a  substantive  of  the  ablative  of  an  ad- 
jective, and  thence  ^///r/^(?,  or,  as  they  make  it,  giorno;  which 
is  readily  contracted  into  giour,  ox  jour.'  He  observed,  that 
the  Bohemian  language  was  true  Sclavonick.  The  Swede 
said,  it  had  some  similarity  with  the  German.  JoilNSON. 
'  Why,  Sir,  to  be  sure,  such  parts  of  Sclavonia  as  confine  with 
Germany,  will  borrow  German  words;  and  such  parts  as  con- 
fine with  Tartary  will  borrow  Tartar  words.' 

He  said,  he  never  had  it  properly  ascertained  that  the 
Scotch  Highlanders  and  the  Irish  understood  each  other ■. 
I  told  him  that  my  cousin  Colonel  Graham,  of  the  Royal 
Highlanders,  whom  I  met  at  Droghcda",  told  me  they  did. 

'  In  my  list  of  Boswell's  projected  works  {ante,  i.  261,  note  i)  I  have 
omitted  this.  ''  Sec  post,  April  7,  1775. 

^  Boswell  visited  Ireland  in  the  summer  of  1769.  Prior's  Goldsmith, 
i.450. 

Johnson. 


i8o  The  schoolmaster  s  cmise.  [a.d.  1772. 

Johnson.  'Sir,  if  the  Highlanders  understood  Irish,  why 
translate  the  New  Testament  into  Erse,  as  was  done  lately 
at  Edinburgh,  when  there  is  an  Irish  translation  ?'  BOS- 
WELL.  '  Although  the  Erse  and  Irish  are  both  dialects  of 
the  same  language,  there  may  be  a  good  deal  of  diversity 
between  them,  as  between  the  different  dialects  in  Italy.' — 
The  Swede  went  away,  and  Mr.  Johnson  continued  his  read- 
ing of  the  papers.  I  said, '  I  am  afraid,  Sir,  it  is  troublesome.' 
'  Why,  Sir,  (said  he,)  I  do  not  take  much  delight  in  it ;  but 
I'll  go  through  it.' 

We  went  to  the  Mitre,  and  dined  in  the  room  where  he 
and  I  first  supped  together.  He  gave  me  great  hopes  of  my 
cause.  '  Sir,  (said  he,)  the  government  of  a  schoolmaster  is 
somewhat  of  the  nature  of  military  government ;  that  is  to 
say,  it  must  be  arbitrary,  it  must  be  exercised  by  the  will  of 
one  man,  according  to  particular  circumstances.  You  must 
shew  some  learning  upon  this  occasion.  You  must  shew, 
that  a  schoolmaster  has  a  prescriptive  right  to  beat ;  and 
that  an  action  of  assault  and  battery  cannot  be  admitted 
against  him,  unless  there  is  some  great  excess,  some  barbar- 
ity. This  man  has  maimed  none  of  his  boys.  They  are  all 
left  with  the  full  exercise  of  their  corporeal  faculties.  In 
our  schools  in  England,  many  boys  have  been  maimed  ;  yet 
I  never  heard  of  an  action  against  a  schoolmaster  on  that 
account.  Puffendorf,  I  think,  maintains  the  right  of  a  school- 
master to  beat  his  scholars  '.' 

On  Saturday,  March  27,  I  introduced  to  him  Sir  Alexan- 
der Macdonald  ^  with  whom  he  had  expressed  a  wish  to  be 
acquainted.     He  received  him  very  courteously. 

'  Puffendorf  states  that  '  tutors  and  schoolmasters  have  a  right  to 
the  moderate  use  of  gentle  discipline  over  their  pupils' — viii.  3-10; 
adding,  rather  superfluously,  Grotius's  caveat,  that '  it  shall  not  extend 
to  a  power  of  death.'     Croker. 

^  The  brother  of  Sir  J.  Macdonald,  mentioned  atite,  i.  520.  Johnson 
visited  him  in  the  Isle  of  Skye.  '  He  had  been  very  well  pleased  with 
him  in  London,  but  he  was  dissatisfied  at  hearing  heavy  complaints  of 
rents  racked,  and  the  people  driven  to  emigration.'  Boswell's/A-i^r/- 
des,  Sept.  2,  1773.    He  reproached  him  also  with  meanness  as  a  host. 

Sir 


Aetat.  63.]  The  Lord  Chajicellors.  1 8 1 

Sir  Alexander  observed,  that  the  Chancellors  in  England 
are  chosen  from  views  much  inferiour  to  the  office,  being 
chosen  from  temporary  political  views.  JOHNSON.  '  Why, 
Sir,  in  such  a  government  as  ours,  no  man  is  appointed  to  an 
office  because  he  is  the  fittest  for  it,  nor  hardly  in  any  other 
government ;  because  there  are  so  many  connexions  and  de- 
pendencies to  be  studied'.  A  despotick  prince  may  choose 
a  man  to  an  office,  merely  because  he  is  the  fittest  for  it. 
The  King  of  Prussia  may  do  it.'  SiR  A.  '  I  think,  Sir,  al- 
most all  great  lawyers,  such  at  least  as  have  written  upon 
law,  have  known  only  law,  and  nothing  else.'  JOHNSON. 
'Why  no,  Sir;  Judge  Hale  was  a  great  lawyer,  and  wrote 
upon  law ;  and  yet  he  knew  a  great  many  other  things,  and 
has  written  upon  other  things.  Selden  too.'  Sni  A.  '  Very 
true,  Sir;  and  Lord  Bacon.  But  was  not  Lord  Coke  a  mere 
lawyer?'  JOHNSON.  'Why,  I  am  afraid  he  was;  but  he 
would  have  taken  it  very  ill  if  you  had  told  him  so.  He 
would  have  prosecuted  you  for  scandal.'  BOSWELL.  '  Lord 
Mansfield  is  not  a  mere  lawyer.'  JOHNSON.  '  No,  Sir.  I 
never  was  in  Lord  Mansfield's  company  ;  but  Lord  Mans- 
field was  distinguished  at  the  University.  Lord  Mansfield, 
when  he  first  came  to  town,  "  drank  champagne  with  the 
wits,"  as  Prior  says\  He  was  the  friend  of  Pope\'  Sh^  A. 
'  Barristers,  I  believe,  are  not  so  abusive  now  as  they  were 
formerly,  I  fancy  they  had  less  law  long  ago,  and  so  were 
obliged  to  take  to  abuse,  to  fill  up  the  time.  Now  they 
have  such  a  number  of  precedents,  they  have  no  occasion 


'  Lord  Campbell  {Lives  of  the  Chancellors,  v.  449)  points  out  that 
this  conversation  followed  close  on  the  appointment  of  '  the  incompe- 
tent Bathurst '  as  Chancellor.  '  Such  a  conversation,'  he  adds,  'would 
not  have  occurred  during  the  chancellorship  of  Lord  Hardwicke  or 
Lord  Somcrs.' 
'  'But  if  at  first  he  minds  his  hits, 

And  drinks  champagne  among  the  wits,'  &c. 

Prior's  Chameleon,  1.  39. 
°  '  Plain  truth,  dear  Murray,  needs  no  flowers  of  speech.'     Pope 
thus  addresses  him  in  Epistle  vi.  Book  i.  of  his  Imiiaiions  of  Horace, 
which  he  fieri icatcd  to  him. 

for 


1 82  The  Scotch  accent.  [a.d.  1773. 

for  abuse.'  JOHNSON.  '  Nay,  Sir,  they  had  more  law  long 
ago  than  they  have  now.  As  to  precedents,  to  be  sure  they 
will  increase  in  course  of  time ;  but  the  more  precedents 
there  are,  the  less  occasion  is  there  for  law ;  that  is  to  say, 
the  less  occasion  is  there  for  investigating  principles.'  SiR 
A.  'I  have  been  correcting  several  Scotch  accents'  in  my 
friend  Boswell.  I  doubt.  Sir,  if  any  Scotchman  ever  attains 
to  a  perfect  English  pronunciation.'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir, 
few  of  them  do,  because  they  do  not  persevere  after  acquir- 
ing a  certain  degree  of  it.  But,  Sir,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  they  may  attain  to  a  perfect  English  pronunciation,  if 
they  will.  We  find  how  near  they  come  to  it ;  and  certainly, 
a  man  who  conquers  nineteen  parts  of  the  Scottish  accent, 
may  conquer  the  twentieth.  But,  Sir,  when  a  man  has  got 
the  better  of  nine  tenths  he  grows  weary,  he  relaxes  his  dili- 
gence, he  finds  he  has  corrected  his  accent  so  far  as  not  to 
be  disagreeable,  and  he  no  longer  desires  his  friends  to  tell 
him  when  he  is  wrong ;  nor  does  he  choose  to  be  told.  Sir, 
when  people  watch  me  narrowly,  and  I  do  not  watch  myself, 
they  will  find  me  out  to  be  of  a  particular  county  ^  In  the 
same  manner.  Dunning^  may  be  found  out  to  be  a  Devon- 
shire man.  So  most  Scotchmen  may  be  found  out.  But, 
Sir,  little  aberrations  are  of  no  disadvantage.  I  never  catched 
Mallet  in  a  Scotch  accent^;  and  yet  Mallet,  I  suppose,  was 
past  five-and-twenty  before  he  came  to  London.' 

Upon  another  occasion  I  talked  to  him  on  this  subject, 

'  See  aiitc,  i.  447. 

^  Sqq  post,  March  23,  1776. 

^  Afterwards  Lord  Ashburton.  Described  by  Johnson  {posf,  July 
22,  1777),  as  '  Mr.  Dunning,  the  great  lawyer.' 

^  '  Having  cleared  his  tongue  from  his  native  pronunciation,  so  as 
to  be  no  longer  distinguished  as  a  Scot,  he  seems  inclined  to  disen- 
cumber himself  from  all  adherences  of  his  original,  and  took  upon 
him  to  change  his  name  from  Scotch  Malloch  to  English  Mallet,  with- 
out any  imaginable  reason  of  preference  which  the  eye  or  ear  can 
discover.  What  other  proofs  he  gave  of  disrespect  to  his  native 
country  I  know  not,  but  it  was  remarked  of  him  that  he  was  the  only 
Scot  whom  Scotchmen  did  not  commend.'  Johnson's  Works,  viii. 
464.     See  ante,  i.  31 1,  and  post,  April  28,  1783. 

having: 


Aetat.  63.]  The  Scotch  accent.  183 

having  myself  taken  some  pains  to  improve  my  pronuncia- 
tion, by  the  aid  of  the  late  Mr.  Love ',  of  Drury^-lane  theatre, 
when  he  was  a  player  at  Edinburgh,  and  also  of  old  Mr. 
Sheridan.  Johnson  said  to  me, '  Sir,  your  pronunciation  is 
not  offensive.'  With  this  concession  I  was  pretty  well  sat- 
isfied ;  and  let  me  give  my  countrjnnen  of  North-Britain  an 
advice  not  to  aim  at  absolute  perfection  in  this  respect ;  not 
to  speak  HigJi  EnglisJi,  as  we  are  apt  to  call  what  is  far  re- 
moved from  the  vSc77/r//,  but  which  is  by  no  vao-^iW-,  good Eng- 
lisJi,  and  makes,  'the  fools  who  use  it",'  truly  ridiculous  \ 
Good  English  is  plain,  easy,  and  smooth  in  the  mouth  of  an 
unaffected  English  Gentleman.  A  studied  and  factitious 
pronunciation,  which  requires  perpetual  attention  and  im- 
poses perpetual  constraint,  is  exceedingly  disgusting.  A  small 
intermixture  of  provincial  peculiarities  may,  perhaps,  have 
an  agreeable  effect,  as  the  notes  of  different  birds  concur  in 
the  harmony  of  the  grove,  and  please  more  than  if  they  were 
all  exactly  alike.  I  could  name  some  gentlemen  of  Ireland, 
to  whom  a  slight  proportion  of  the  accent  and  recitative  of 
that  country  is  an  advantage.  The  same  observation  will 
apply  to  the  gentlemen  of  Scotland.    I  do  not  mean  that  we 

'  Mr.  Love  was,  so  far  as  is  known,  the  first  who  advised  Boswell  to 
keep  a  journal.  When  Boswell  was  but  eighteen,  writing  of  a  journey 
he  had  taken,  he  says  : — '  I  kept  an  exact  journal,  at  the  particular  de- 
sire of  my  friend,  Mr.  Love,  and  sent  it  to  him  in  sheets  every  post.' 
Letters  of  Boswell,  p.  8. 

'  'That's  villainous,  and  shows  a  most  pitiful  ambition  in  the  fool 
that  uses  it.'     Hamlet,  iii.  2. 

'  Jeffrey  wrote  from  Oxford,  where  he  spent  nine  months  in  1791-2  : 
— '  The  only  part  of  a  Scotchman  I  mean  to  abandon  is  the  language, 
and  language  is  all  I  expect  to  learn  in  England.'  (Cockburn'sy<^nj, 
i.  46.)  His  biographer  says: — 'He  certainly  succeeded  in  the  aban- 
donment of  his  habitual  Scotch.  The  change  was  so  sudden  and  so 
complete,  that  it  excited  the  surprise  of  his  friends,  and  furnished 
others  with  ridicule  for  many  years.  .  .  .  The  result,  on  the  whole,  was 
exactly  as  described  V^y  Lord  Holland,  who  said  that  though  Jeffrey 
"  had  lost  the  broad  Scotch  at  Oxford,  he  had  only  gained  the  narrow 
English."  '  Cockburn,  in  forgetfulness  of  Mallet's  case,  says  that '  the 
acquisition  of  a  pure  English  accent  by  a  full-grown  Scotchman  is 
fortunately  impossible.' 

should 


184  The  pronunciation  of  English.       [a.d.  1772. 

should  speak  as  broad  as  a  certain  prosperous  member  of 
Parliament  from  that  country' ;  though  it  has  been  well  ob- 
served, that '  it  has  been  of  no  small  use  to  him  ;  as  it  rouses 
the  attention  of  the  House  by  its  uncommonness ;  and  is 
equal  to  tropes  and  figures  in  a  good  English  speaker.'  I 
would  give  as  an  instance  of  what  I  mean  to  recommend  to 
my  countrymen,  the  pronunciation  of  the  late  Sir  Gilbert 
Elliot";  and  may  I  presume  to  add  that  of  the  present  Earl  of 
Marchmont',  who  told  me,  with  great  good  humour,  that  the 
master  of  a  shop  in  London,  where  he  was  not  known,  said  to 
him, '  I  suppose.  Sir,  you  are  an  American.'  '  Why  so.  Sir?' 
(said  his  Lordship.)  '  Because,  Sir,  (replied  the  shopkeeper,) 
you  speak  neither  English  nor  Scotch,  but  something  differ- 
ent from  both,  which  I  conclude  is  the  language  of  America.' 
BOSWELL.  '  It  may  be  of  use,  Sir,  to  have  a  Dictionary 
to  ascertain  the  pronunciation.'  JOHNSON.  '  Why.  Sir,  my 
Dictionary  shows  you  the  accents  of  words,  if  you  can  but 
remember  them.'  Boswell.  '  But,  Sir,  we  want  marks  to 
ascertain  the  pronunciation  of  the  vowels.  Sheridan,  I  be- 
lieve, has  finished  such  a  work.'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir,  con- 
sider how  much  easier  it  is  to  learn  a  language  by  the  ear, 
than  by  any  marks.  Sheridan's  Dictionary  may  do  very  well ; 
but  you  cannot  always  carry  it  about  with  you  :  and,  when 

'  Henry  Dundas,  afterwards  Viscount  Melville.  See  post,  under 
Nov.  29,  1777.  Boswell  wrote  to  Temple  on  May  22,  1775  : — '  Harry 
Dundas  is  going  to  be  made  King's  Advocate — Lord  Advocate  at 
thirty-three!  I  cannot  help  being  angry  and  somewhat  fretful  at 
this ;  he  has,  to  be  sure,  strong  parts,  but  he  is  a  coarse,  unlettered, 
unfanciful  dog.'  Letters  of  Boswell,  i^.  195.  Horace  Walpole  describes 
him  as 'the  rankest  of  all  Scotchmen,  and  odious  for  that  bloody 
speech  that  had  fixed  on  him  the  nick-name  of  Starvation.'  Journal 
of  the  Reign  of  George  III,  ii.  479.  On  p.  637  he  adds  : — '  The  happily 
coined  word  "  starvation  "  delivered  a  whole  continent  from  the  North- 
ern harpies  that  meant  to  devour  it.'  The  speech  in  which  Dundas 
introduced  starz'ation  was  made  in  1775.  Walpole's  Letters,  viii.  30. 
See  Pari.  Hist.  xvm.  387.  His  character  is  drawn  with  great  force  by 
Cockburn.     Life  of  Jeffrey,  i.  yj. 

'  The  correspondent  of  Hume.     See  J.  H.  Burton's  Hume,  i.  320. 

'  See  post.  May  12,  177S. 

you 


Aetat.  63.]        The  pronunciation  of  English.  185 

you  want  the  word,  you  have  not  the  Dictionary.  It  is  like 
a  man  who  has  a  sword  that  will  not  draw.  It  is  an  admi- 
rable sword,  to  be  sure :  but  while  your  enemy  is  cutting 
your  throat,  you  are  unable  to  use  it.  Besides,  Sir,  what 
entitles  Sheridan  to  fix  the  pronunciation  of  English?  He 
has,  in  the  first  place,  the  disadvantage  of  being  an  Irish- 
man:  and  if  he  says  he  will  fix  it  after  the  example  of  the 
best  company,  why  they  differ  among  themselves.  I  remem- 
ber an  instance :  when  I  published  the  Plan  for  my  Diction- 
ar}-,  Lord  Chesterfield  told  me  that  the  word  great  should 
be  pronounced  so  as  to  rhyme  to  state ;  and  Sir  William 
Yonge  sent  me  word  that  it  should  be  pronounced  so  as  to 
rhyme  to  scat,  and  that  none  but  an  Irishman  would  pro- 
nounce it  grait\  Now  here  were  two  men  of  the  highest 
rank,  the  one,  the  best  speaker  in  the  House  of  Lords,  the 
other,  the  best  speaker  in  the  House  of  Commons,  differing 
entirely.' 

I  again  visited  him  at  night.  Finding  him  in  a  very  good 
humour,  I  ventured  to  lead  him  to  the  subject  of  our  situa- 
tion in  a  future  state,  having  much  curiosity  to  know  his  no- 
tions on  that  point.     JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir,  the  happiness  of 

'  In  the  Ptait  ( Works,  v.  9),  Johnson  noticed  the  difference  of  the 
pronunciation  oi great.  'Some  words  have  two  sounds  which  may 
be  equally  admitted  as  being  equally  defensible  by  authority.  Thus 
great  is  differently  used  : — 

"  For  Swift  and  him  despised  the  farce  of  state, 
The  sober  follies  of  the  wise  and  great." — Pope. 

"  As  if  misfortune  made  the  throne  her  seat. 
And  none  could  be  unhappy  but  the  great." ' — RowE. 
In  the  Preface  to  the  Dictionary  {IVorks,  v.  25),  Johnson  says  that 
'the  vowels  are   capriciously  pronounced,  and   differently  modified 
by  accident  or  affectation,  not  only  in  every  province,  but  in  every 
mouth.'     Swift  gives  both  rhymes  within  ten  lines  : — 
'  My  lord  and  he  are  grown  so  great — 
Always  together,  tete-a-tcte.' 
*  *  *  *  *  * 

'You,  Mr.  Dean,  frequent  the  great. 
Inform  us,  will  the  emperor  treat  .'*' 

Swift's  IVor/cs  (1803),  x.  no. 
an 


1 86  The  happiness  of  a  spirit.  [a.d.  1773. 

an  unembodied  spirit  will  consist  in  a  consciousness  of  the 
favour  of  GOD,  in  the  contemplation  of  truth,  and  in  the  pos- 
session of  felicitating  ideas.'  BOSWELL.  '  But,  Sir,  is  there 
any  harm  in  our  forming  to  ourselves  conjectures  as  to  the 
particulars  of  our  happiness,  though  the  scripture  has  said 
but  very  little  on  the  subject  ?  "  We  know  not  what  we  shall 
be."  '  Johnson.  '  Sir,  there  is  no  harm.  What  philosophy 
suggests  to  us  on  this  topick  is  probable :  what  scripture 
tells  us  is  certain.  Dr.  Henry  More'  has  carried  it  as  far  as 
philosophy  can.  You  may  buy  both  his  theological  and 
philosophical  works  in  two  volumes  folio,  for  about  eight 
shillings.'  BosWELL.  '  One  of  the  most  pleasing  thoughts 
is,  that  we  shall  see  our  friends  again.'  Johnson.  '  Yes,  Sir; 
but  you  must  consider,  that  when  we  are  become  purely  ra- 
tional, many  of  our  friendships  will  be  cut  off.  Many  friend- 
ships are  formed  by  a  community  of  sensual  pleasures :  all 
these  will  be  cut  off.  We  form  many  friendships  with  bad 
men,  because  they  have  agreeable  qualities,  and  they  can  be 
useful  to  us;  but,  after  death,  they  can  no  longer  be  of  use  to 
us.  We  form  many  friendships  by  mistake,  imagining  people 
to  be  different  from  what  they  really  are.  After  death,  we 
shall  see  every  one  in  a  true  light.  Then,  Sir,  they  talk  of 
our  meeting  our  relations :  but  then  all  relationship  is  dis- 
solved ;  and  we  shall  have  no  regard  for  one  person  more 
than  another,  but  for  their  real  value.  However,  we  shall 
either  have  the  satisfaction  of  meeting  our  friends,  or  be  sat- 
isfied without  meeting  them  \'  Boswell.  '  Yet,  Sir,  we  see 
in  scripture,  that  Dives  still  retained  an  anxious  concern 
about  his  brethren.'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir,  we  must  either 
suppose  that  passage  to  be  metaphorical,  or  hold  with  many 
divines,  and  all  the  Purgatorians,  that  departed  souls  do  not 
all  at  once  arrive  at  the  utmost  perfection  of  which  they  are 

'  '  Dr.  Henry  More,  of  Cambridge,  Johnson  did  not  much  affect ;  he 
was  a  Platonist,  and,  in  Johnson's  opinion,  a  visionary.  He  would 
frequently  cite  from  him,  and  laugh  at,  a  passage  to  this  effect : — "  At 
the  consummation  of  all  things,  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  eternity 
shall  shake  hands  with  opacity."  '     W.^viV\x\€s  Johnson,  p.  543. 

=■  SQQpost,  April  17,  1778,  and  May  19,  1784. 

capable.' 


Aetat.  C3.]  Mrs.  VeaV s  ghost.  187 

capable.'  BOSWELL.  '  I  think,  Sir,  that  is  a  very  rational 
supposition.'  JOHNSON.  'Why,  yes,  Sir;  but  we  do  not 
know  it  is  a  true  one.  There  is  no  harm  in  believing  it :  but 
you  must  not  compel  others  to  make  it  an  article  of  faith ; 
for  it  is  not  revealed.'  BoswELL.  *  Do  you  think,  Sir,  it  is 
wrong  in  a  man  who  holds  the  doctrine  of  purgatory,  to  pray 
for  the  souls  of  his  deceased  friends?'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  no. 
Sir'.'  BoswELL.  '  I  have  been  told,  that  in  the  Liturgy  of 
the  Episcopal  Church  of  Scotland,  there  was  a  form  of  prayer 
for  the  dead.'  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  it  is  not  in  the  liturgy  which 
Laud  framed  for  the  Episcopal  Church  of  Scotland :  if  there 
is  a  liturgy  older  than  that,  I  should  be  glad  to  see  it.'  BOS- 
WELL. 'As  to  our  employment  in  a  future  state,  the  sacred 
writings  say  little.  The  Revelation,  however,  of  St.  John 
gives  us  many  ideas,  and  particularly  mentions  musick''.' 
Johnson.  '  Why,  Sir,  ideas  must  be  given  you  by  means  of 
something  which  you  know^:  and  as  to  musick  there  are 
some  philosophers  and  divines  who  have  maintained  that  we 
shall  not  be  spiritualized  to  such  a  degree,  but  that  some- 
thing of  matter,  very  much  refined,  will  remain.  In  that  case, 
musick  may  make  a  part  of  our  future  felicity.' 

BosWELL,  '  I  do  not  know  whether  there  are  any  well- 
attested  stories  of  the  appearance  of  ghosts.  You  know 
there  is  a  famous  story  of  the  appearance  of  Mrs.  Veal,  pre- 
fixed to  Drelincoiirt  on  Death.'  Johnson.  '  I  believe.  Sir, 
that  is  given  up.  I  believe  the  woman  declared  upon  her 
death-bed  that  it  was  a  lie'.'     BoswELL.   'This  objection 

'  See  ante,  i.  278,  and  ii.  120. 

*  Rei'clations,  xiv.  2. 

'  Johnson,  in  The  Ramblei-,  No.  78,  describes  man's  death  as  '  a 
change  not  only  of  the  place,  but  the  manner  of  his  being;  an  en- 
trance into  a  state  not  simply  which  he  knows  not,  but  which  per- 
haps he  has  not  faculties  to  know.' 

*  This  fiction  is  known  to  have  been  invented  by  Daniel  Defoe,  and 
was  added  to  Drelincourt's  book,  to  make  it  sell.  The  first  edition 
had  it  not.  Malone.  '  More  than  fifty  editions  have  not  exhausted 
its  popularity.  The  hundreds  of  thousands  who  have  bought  the 
sifly  treatise  of  Drelincourt  have  borne  unconscious  testimony  to  the 
genius  of  De  Foe.'     Forster's  Essays,  ii.  70. 

is 


1 88  Elwal  the  heretick.  [a.d.  1772. 

is  made  against  the  truth  of  ghosts  appearing :  that  if  they 
are  in  a  state  of  happiness,  it  would  be  a  punishment  to 
them  to  return  to  this  world  ;  and  if  they  are  in  a  state 
of  misery,  it  would  be  giving  them  a  respite.'  JOHNSON. 
'  Why,  Sir,  as  the  happiness  or  misery  of  embodied  spirits 
does  not  depend  upon  place,  but  is  intellectual,  we  cannot 
say  that  they  are  less  happy  or  less  miserable  by  appearing 
upon  earth.' 

We  went  down  between  twelve  and  one  to  Mrs.  Williams's 
room,  and  drank  tea.  I  mentioned  that  we  were  to  have 
the  remains  of  Mr.  Gray,  in  prose  and  verse,  published  by 
Mr.  Mason*.  JOHNSON.  'I  think  we  have  had  enough  of 
Gray.  I  see  they  have  published  a  splendid  edition  of 
Akenside's  works.  One  bad  ode  may  be  suffered  ;  but  a 
number  of  them  together  makes  one  sick^'  BOSWELL. 
'  Akenside's  distinguished  poem  is  his  Pleasures  of  Imagi- 
nation :  but  for  my  part,  I  never  could  admire  it  so  much 
as  most  people  do.'  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  I  could  not  read  it 
through.'  BosWELL.  '  I  have  read  it  through  ;  but  I  did 
not  find  any  great  power  in  it.' 

I  mentioned  Elwal,  the  heretick,  whose  trial  Sir  John 
Pringle'  had  given  me  to  read.  JOHNSON.  'Sir,  Mr.  Elwal 
was,  I  think,  an  ironmonger  at  Wolverhampton  ;  and  he 
had  a  mind  to  make  himself  famous,  by  being  the  founder 
of  a  new  sect,  which  he  wished  much  should  be  called 
Elzuallians.  He  held,  that  every  thing  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment that  was  not  typical,  was  to  be  of  perpetual  observ- 
ance ;  and  so  he  wore  a  ribband  in  the  plaits  of  his  coat, 
and  he  also  wore  a  beard.  I  remember  I  had  the  honour 
of   dining   in  company  with    Mr.  Elwal.      There  was  one 

'  See  ante,  i.  34. 

^  In  his  Life  of  Akenside  (  Works,  viii.  475)  he  says  : — '  Of  Akenside's 
Odes  nothing  favourable  can  be  said.  ...  To  examine  such  composi- 
tions singly  cannot  be  required ;  they  have  doubtless  brighter  and 
darker  parts ;  but  when  they  are  once  found  to  be  generally  dull,  all 
further  labour  may  be  spared  ;  for  to  what  use  can  the  work  be  criti- 
cised that  will  not  be  read  ?'     Se.e  post,  April  10,  1776. 

^  See  post,  just  before  May  15, 1776. 

Barter, 


Aetat.  63.]  Elwal  the  heretick.  189 

Barter,  a  miller,  who  wrote  against  him  ;  and  you  had  the 
controversy  between  Mr.  Elwal  and  Mr.  BARTER.  To 
try  to  make  himself  distinguished,  he  wrote  a  letter  to 
King  George  the  Second,  challenging  him  to  dispute  with 
him,  in  which  he  said,  "  George,  if  you  be  afraid  to  come 
by  yourself,  to  dispute  with  a  poor  old  man,  you  may 
bring  a  thousand  of  your  (5'A?r/C' -  guards  with  you;  and  if 
you  should  still  be  afraid,  you  may  bring  a  thousand  of 
your  rr<:/- guards."  'The  letter  had  something  of  the  im- 
pudence of  Junius  to  our  present  King.  But  the  men  of 
Wolverhampton  were  not  so  inflammable  as  the  Common- 
Council  of  London';  so  Mr.  Elwal  failed  in  his  scheme  of 
making  himself  a  man  of  great  consequence'.' 

On  Tuesday,  March  31,  he  and  I  dined  at  General  Paoli's. 

'  St&posi,  Sept.  23, 1777. 

^  The  account  of  his  trial  is  entitled  : — '  T/ie  Gratid  Question  in  Re- 
ligio7i  Considered.  Whether  we  shall  obey  God  or  Man  ;  Christ  or  the 
Pope ;  the  Prophets  ajtd  Apostles,  or  Prelates  and  Priests.  Humbly 
offered  to  the  King  and  Parliament  of  Great  Britain.  By  E.  Elwall. 
With  an  account  of  the  AutJiors  Tryal  or  Prosecution  at  Stafford  As- 
sizes before  Jtidge  Denton.  London.'  No  date.  Elwall  seems  to  have 
been  a  Unitarian  Quaker.  He  was  prosecuted  for  publishing  a  book 
against  the  doctrines  of  the  Trinity,  but  was  discharged,  being,  he 
writes,  treated  by  the  Judge  with  great  humanity.  In  his  pamphlet 
he  says  (p.  49)  : — '  You  see  what  I  have  already  done  in  my  former 
book.  I  have  challenged  the  greatest  potentates  on  earth,  yea,  even 
the  King  of  Great  Britain,  whose  true  and  faithful  subject  I  am  in  all 
temporal  things,  and  whom  I  love  and  honour;  also  his  noble  and 
valiant  friend,  John  Argyle,  and  his  great  friends  Robert  Walpole, 
Charles  Wager,  and  Arthur  Onslow ;  all  these  can  speak  well,  and 
who  is  like  them ;  and  yet,  behold,  none  of  all  these  cared  to  engage 
with  their  friend  Elwall.'  See  post.  May  7, 1773.  Dr.  Priestley  had  re- 
ceived an  account  of  the  trial  from  a  gentleman  who  was  present,  who 
described  Elwall  as  'a  tall  man,  with  white  hair,  a  large  beard  and 
flowing  garments,  who  struck  everybody  with  respect.  He  spoke 
about  an  hour  with  great  gravity,  fluency,  and  presence  of  mind.'  The 
trial  took  place,  he  said,  in  1726.  '  It  is  impossible,'  adds  Priestley 
(Wor/cs,  ed.  1831,  ii.417), '  for  an  unprejudiced  person  to  read  Elwall's 
account  of  his  trial,  without  feeling  the  greatest  veneration  for  the 
writer.'  In  truth,  Elwall  spoke  with  all  the  simple  power  of  the  best 
of  the  early  Quakers. 

A  question 


1 90  Is  marriage  natural  to  man  ?       [a.d.  1773, 

A  question  was  started,  whether  the  state  of  marriage  was 
natural  to  man.  JoilNSON.  '  Sir,  it  is  so  far  from  being 
natural  for  a  man  and  woman  to  live  in  a  state  of  marriage, 
that  we  find  all  the  motives  which  they  have  for  remaining 
in  that  connection,  and  the  restraints  which  civilized  society 
imposes  to  prevent  separation,  are  hardly  sufficient  to  keep 
them  together.'  The  General  said,  that  in  a  state  of  nature 
a  man  and  woman  uniting  together,  would  form  a  strong 
and  constant  affection,  by  the  mutual  pleasure  each  would 
receive  ;  and  that  the  same  causes  of  dissention  would  not 
arise  between  them,  as  occur  between  husband  and  wife  in 
a  civilized  state.  JOHNSON.  'Sir,  they  would  have  dissen- 
tions  enough,  though  of  another  kind.  One  would  choose  to 
go  a  hunting  in  this  wood,  the  other  in  that ;  one  would 
choose  to  go  a  fishing  in  this  lake,  the  other  in  that ;  or, 
perhaps,  one  would  choose  to  go  a  hunting,  when  the  other 
would  choose  to  go  a  fishing;  and  so  they  would  part.  Be- 
sides, Sir,  a  savage  man  and  a  savage  woman  meet  by 
chance;  and  when  the  man  sees  another  woman  that  pleases 
him  better,  he  will  leave  the  first.' 

We  then  fell  into  a  disquisition  whether  there  is  any  beauty 
independent  of  utility.  The  General  maintained  there  was 
not.  Dr.  Johnson  maintained  that  there  was;  and  he  in- 
stanced a  coffee-cup  which  he  held  in  his  hand,  the  paint- 
ing of  which  was  of  no  real  use,  as  the  cup  would  hold  the 
coffee  equally  well  if  plain ;  yet  the  painting  was  beautiful. 

We  talked  of  the  strange  custom  of  swearing  in  conversa- 
tion '.  The  General  said,  that  all  barbarous  nations  swore 
from  a  certain  violence  of  temper,  that  could  not  be  con- 
fined to  earth,  but  was  always  reaching  at  the  powers  above. 
He  said,  too,  that  there  was  greater  variety  of  swearing, 
in  proportion  as  there  was  a  greater  variety  of  religious 
ceremonies. 

'  Boswell,  in  the  Hypochondriack  {Lo7idon  Mag.  1783,  p.  290),  writing 
on  swearing,  says  : — '  I  have  the  comfort  to  think  that  my  practice  has 
been  blameless  in  this  respect.'  He  continues  (p.  293) : — '  To  do  the 
present  age  justice,  there  is  much  less  swearing  among  genteel  people 
than  in  the  last  age.' 

Dr.  Johnson 


Aetat.  63.]       GoldsniitJi  s  LiFE  OF  Parnell.  191 

Dr.  Johnson  went  home  with  me  to  my  lodgings  in  Con- 
duit-street and  drank  tea,  previous  to  our  going  to  the 
Pantheon,  which  neither  of  us  had  seen  before. 

He  said, '  Goldsmith's  Life  of  ParnclP  is  poor;  not  that 
it  is  poorly  written,  but  that  he  had  poor  materials ;  for 
nobody  can  write  the  life  of  a  man,  but  those  who  have 
cat  and  drunk  and  lived  in  social  intercourse  with  him.' 

I  said,  that  if  it  was  not  troublesome  and  presuming  too 
much,  I  would  request  him  to  tell  me  all  the  little  circum- 
stances of  his  life;  what  schools  he  attended,  when  he  came 
to  Oxford,  when  he  came  to  London,  &c.,  &c.  He  did  not 
disapprove  of  my  curiosity  as  to  these  particulars ;  but  said, 
'They'll  come  out  by  degrees  as  we  talk  together \' 

He  censured  Ruffhead's  Life  of  Pope"" ;  and  said, '  he  knew 
nothing  of  Pope,  and  nothing  of  poetry.'  He  praised  Dr. 
Joseph  Warton's  Essay  on  Pope*;  but  said,  he  supposed  we 
should  have  no  more  of  it,  as  the  authour  had  not  been  able 
to  persuade  the  world  to  think  of  Pope  as  he  did.  BOS- 
WELL.  '  Why,  Sir,  should  that  prevent  him  from  continuing 
his  work  ?  He  is  an  ingenious  Counsel,  who  has  made  the 
most  of  his  cause :  he  is  not  obliged  to  gain  it.'  JOHNSON. 
*  But,  Sir,  there  is  a  difference  when  the  cause  is  of  a  man's 
own  making.' 


'  '  The  Life  of  Dr.  ParncU  is  a  task  which  I  should  very  wilHngly 
decHne,  since  it  has  been  lately  written  by  Goldsmith,  a  man  of  such 
variety  of  powers,  and  such  felicity  of  performance,  that  he  always 
seemed  to  do  best  that  which  he  was  doing.  .  .  .  What  such  an  author 
has  told,  who  would  tell  again  ?  I  have  made  an  abstract  from  his- 
larger  narrative,  and  have  this  gratification  from  my  attempt,  that 
it  gives  me  an  opportunity  of  paying  due  tribute  to  the  memory  of 
Goldsmith.     To  yap  yfpae  ton  OavovTwv.'    Johnson's  Wor/cs,  vii.  398. 

"^  See  aiiic,  i.  31,  Tmdpost,  April  11,  1773. 

^  '  Mr.  Rullhead  says  of  fine  passages  that  they  are  fine,  and  of  fee- 
ble passages  that  they  are  feeble ;  but  recommending  poetical  beauty 
is  like  remarking  the  splendour  of  sunshine ;  to  those  who  can  see  it 
is  unnecessary',  and  to  those  who  are  blind,  absurd.'  Gent.  Afni^^.  May, 
1769,  p.  255.  The  review  in  which  this  passage  occurs,  is  perhaps  in 
part  Johnson's. 

*  See  an/e,  i.  519. 

We 


192  The  proper  use  of  riches.  [a.d.  1772. 

We  talked  of  the  proper  use  of  riches.  JoilNSON.  '  If  I 
were  a  man  of  a  great  estate,  I  would  drive  all  the  rascals 
whom  I  did  not  like  out  of  the  county  at  an  election ',' 

I  asked  him  how  far  he  thought  wealth  should  be  em- 
ployed in  hospitality.  JoilNSON.  'You  are  to  consider  that 
ancient  hospitality,  of  which  we- hear  so  much,  was  in  an 
uncommercial  country,  when  men  being  idle,  were  glad  to 
be  entertained  at  rich  men's  tables.  But  in  a  commercial 
country,  a  busy  country,  time  becomes  precious,  and  there- 
fore hospitality  is  not  so  much  valued.  No  doubt  there  is 
still  room  for  a  certain  degree  of  it ;  and  a  man  has  a  satis- 
faction in  seeing  his  friends  eating  and  drinking  around 
him.  But  promiscuous  hospitality  is  not  the  way  to  gain 
real  influence.  You  must  help  some  people  at  table  be- 
fore others ;  you  must  ask  some  people  how  they  like  their 
wine  oftener  than  others.  You  therefore  offend  more  peo- 
ple than  you  please.  You  are  like  the  French  statesman, 
who  said,  when  he  granted  a  favour,  "  y  ai  fait  dix  mccon- 
tcnts  ct  wi  iJigrat'y  Besides,  Sir,  being  entertained  ever  so 
well  at  a  man's  table,  impresses  no  lasting  regard  or  esteem. 
No,  Sir,  the  way  to  make  sure  of  power  and  influence  is, 
by  lending  money  confidentially  to  your  neighbours  at  a 
small  interest,  or,  perhaps,  at  no  interest  at  all,  and  having 
their  bonds  in  your  possession  \'  BOSWELL.  '  May  not  a 
man,  Sir,  employ  his  riches  to  advantage  in  educating  young 
men  of  merit?'  JOHNSON.  'Yes,  Sir,  if  they  fall  in  your 
way ;  but  if  it  be  understood  that  you  patronize  young  men 
of  merit,  you  will  be  harassed  with  solicitations.  You  will 
have  nuinbers  forced  upon  you  who  have  no  merit ;  some 
will  force  them  upon  you  from  mistaken  partiality;  and  some 
from  downright  interested  motives,  without  scruple ;  and  you 
will  be  disgraced.' 

'  Seeposf,  April  5,  1775. 

^  It  was  Lewis  XIV  who  said  it.  '  Toutes  les  fois  que  je  donne  une 
place  vacante,  je  fais  cent  mecontents  et  un  ingrat.'  Voltaire,  Siccle  de 
Louis  XIV,  ch.  26.  '  When  I  give  away  a  place,'  said  Lewis  XIV, '  I 
make  an  hundred  discontented,  and  one  ungrateful.'  Johnson's  Works, 
viii.  204.  "  See /fi-/,  May  15,  1783. 

'  Were 


Aetat.  63.]  Bayes  in  The  Rehearsal.  193 

'  Were  I  a  rich  man,  I  would  propagate  all  kinds  of  trees 
that  will  grow  in  the  open  air.  A  greenhouse  is  childish.  I 
would  introduce  foreign  animals  into  the  country;  for  in- 
stance the  reindeer '.' 

The  conversation  now  turned  on  critical  subjects.  J<3HN- 
SON.  '  Bayes,  in  TJie  Rehearsal,  is  a  mighty  silly  character. 
If  it  was  intended  to  be  like  a  particular  man,  it  could  only 
be  diverting  while  that  man  was  remembered.  But  I  ques- 
tion whether  it  was  meant  for  Dr}^den,  as  has  been  reported  ; 
for  we  know  some  of  the  passages  said  to  be  ridiculed,  were 
written  since  The  Rehearsal ;  at  least  a  passage  mentioned 
in  the  Preface*  is  of  a  later  date.'  I  maintained  that  it 
had  merit  as  a  general  satire  on  the  self-importance  of 
dramatick  authours.  But  even  in  this  light  he  held  it  very 
cheap. 

We  then  walked  to  the  Pantheon.  The  first  view  of  it 
did  not  strike  us  so  much  as  Ranelagh,  of  which  he  said, 
the  '  ecntp  d'wil  was  the  iinest  thing  he  had  ever  seen.'  The 
truth  is,  Ranelagh  is  of  a  more  beautiful  form  ;  more  of  it, 
or  rather  indeed  the  whole  rotunda,  appears  at  once,  and  it 
is  better  lighted.  However,  as  Johnson  observed,  we  saw 
the  Pantheon  in  time  of  mourning,  when  there  was  a  dull 
uniformity ;  whereas  we  had  seen  Ranelagh  when  the  view 

'  This  project  has  since  been  realized.  Sir  Henry  Liddel,  who 
made  a  spirited  tour  into  Lapland,  brought  two  rein-deer  to  his  estate 
in  Northumberland,  where  they  bred  ;  but  the  race  has  unfortunately 
perished.     Boswell. 

'  Dr.  Johnson  seems  to  have  meant  the  Address  to  the  Reader  with 
a  Key  subjoined  to  it ;  which  have  been  prefixed  to  the  modern  edi- 
tions of  that  play.  He  did  not  know,  it  appears,  that  several  addi- 
tions were  made  to  The  Rehearsal  after  the  first  edition.  Malone. 
In  his  Life  of  Dryden  (Works,  vii.  272)  Johnson  writes: — 'Bucking- 
ham characterised  Dryden  in  1671  by  the  name  of  Bayes  in  The  Re- 
hearsal. ...  It  is  said  that  this  farce  was  originally  intended  against 
Davenant,  who  in  the  first  draught  was  characterised  by  the  name  of 
Bilboa. ...  It  is  said,  likewise,  that  Sir  Robert  Howard  was  once  meant. 
The  design  was  probably  to  ridicule  the  reigning  poet,  whoever  he 
might  be.  Much  of  the  personal  satire,  to  which  it  might  owe  its  first 
reception,  is  now  lost  or  obscured." 

II. — 13  was 


194  The  Pantheon.  [a.d.  1773. 

was  enlivened  with  a  gay  profusion  of  colours '.  Mrs.  Bos- 
ville",  of  Gunthwait,  in  Yorkshire,  joined  us,  and  entered  into 
conversation  with  us.  Johnson  said  to  me  afterwards,  '  Sir, 
this  is  a  mighty  intelligent  lady.' 

I  said  there  was  not  half  a  guinea's  worth  of  pleasure  in 
seeing  this  place.  JOHNSON.  '  But,  Sir,  there  is  half  a  guin- 
ea's worth  of  inferiority  to  other  people  in  not  having  seen 
it.'  BOSWELL.  '  I  doubt,  Sir,  whether  there  are  many  happy 
people  here.'  JOHNSON.  'Yes,  Sir,  there  are  many  happy 
people  here.  There  are  many  people  here  who  are  watching 
hundreds,  and  who  think  hundreds  are  watching  them  ^' 

Happening  to   meet   Sir  Adam   Fergusson  *,  I  presented 

*  '  The  Pantheon,'  wrote  Horace  Walpole  {Letters,  v.  489),  a  year 
later  than  this  conversation,  '  is  still  the  most  beautiful  edifice  in  Eng- 
land.' Gibbon,  a  few  weeks  before  Johnson's  visit  to  the  Pantheon, 
wrote:  —  'In  point  of  oinui  and  magnificence,  the  Pantheon  is  the 
wonder  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  of  the  British  empire.'  Gibbon's 
Misc.  Works,  ii.  74.  Evelina,  in  Miss  Barney's  novel  (vol.  i.  Letter 
xxiii)  contrasts  the  Pantheon  and  Ranelagh  : — '  I  was  extremely  struck 
on  entering  the  Pantheon  with  the  beauty  of  the  building,  which 
greatly  surpassed  whatever  I  could  have  expected  or  imagined.  Yet 
it  has  more  the  appearance  of  a  chapel  than  of  a  place  of  diversion ; 
and,  though  I  was  quite  charmed  with  the  magnificence  of  the  room, 
I  felt  that  I  could  not  be  as  gay  and  thoughtless  there  as  at  Rane- 
lagh ;  for  there  is  something  in  it  which  rather  inspires  awe  and  so- 
lemnity than  mirth  and  pleasure.'  Ranelagh  was  at  Chelsea,  the 
Pantheon  was  in  Oxford-street.  See  attic,  ii.  137,  and  post,  Sept.  23, 
1777. 

^  Her  husband.  Squire  Godfrey  Bosville,  Boswell  {post,  Aug.  24, 
1780)  calls  'my  Yorkshire  chief.'  Their  daughter  was  one  of  the 
young  ladies  whom  he  passes  in  review  in  his  letters  to  Temple. 
'  What  say  you  to  my  marrying  ?  I  intend  next  autumn  to  visit  Miss 
Bosville  in  Yorkshire ;  but  I  fear,  my  lot  being  cast  in  Scotland,  that 
beauty  would  not  be  content.  She  is,  however,  grave ;  I  shall  see.' 
Letters  of  Boswell,  p.  81.  She  married  Sir  A.  Macdonald,  Johnson's 
inhospitable  host  in  Sky  {ante,  ii.  180). 

'  In  The  Adi'entiirer,  No.  120,  Johnson,  after  describing  'a'  gay  as- 
sembly,' continues:  —  'The  world  in  its  best  state  is  nothing  more 
than  a  larger  assembly  of  beings,  combining  to  counterfeit  happiness 
which  they  do  not  feel.'     IVorks,  iv.  120. 

*  '  Sir  Adam  Fergusson,  who  by  a  strange  coincidence  of  chances 

him 


Aetat.  63.]         The  rejjicdy  against  tyra7tny.  195 

him  to  Dr.  Johnson.  Sir  Adam  expressed  some  apprehen- 
sion that  the  Pantheon  woidd  encourage  luxury.  '  Sir,  (said 
Johnson,)  I  am  a  great  friend  to  pubhck  amusements ;  for 
they  keep  people  from  vice.  You  now,  (addressing  himself 
to  me,)  would  have  been  with  a  wench,  had  you  not  been 
here. — O  I   I  forgot  you  were  married,' 

Sir  Adam  suggested,  that  luxury  corrupts  a  people,  and 
destroys  the  spirit  of  liberty.  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  that  is  all 
visionary.  I  would  not  give  half  a  guinea  to  live  under  one 
form  of  government  rather  than  another.  It  is  of  no  mo- 
ment to  the  happiness  of  an  individual'.  Sir,  the  danger 
of  the  abuse  of  power  is  nothing  to  a  private  man.  What 
Frenchman  is  prevented  from  passing  his  life  as  he  pleases?' 
Sir  Adam.  '  But,  Sir,  in  the  British  constitution  it  is  surely 
of  importance  to  keep  up  a  spirit  in  the  people,  so  as  to  pre- 
serve a  balance  against  the  crown.'  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  I  per- 
ceive you  are  a  vile  Whig.  Why  all  this  childish  jealousy 
of  the  power  of  the  crown  ?  The  crown  has  not  power 
enough.  W^hen  I  say  that  all  governments  are  alike,  I  con- 
sider that  in  no  government  power  can  be  abused  long.  Man- 
kind will  not  bear  it.  If  a  sovereign  oppresses  his  people  to 
a  great  degree,  they  will  rise  and  cut  off  his  head.  There  is 
a  remedy  in  human  nature  against  tyranny,  that  will  keep  us 
safe  under  every  form  of  government  \  Had  not  the  people 
of  France  thought  themselves  honoured  as  sharing  in  the 
brilliant  actions  of  Lewis  XIV,  they  would  not  have  endured 
him  ;    and  we  may  say  the  same  of  the  King  of  Prussia's 

got  in  to  be  member  of  Parliament  for  Ayrshire  in  1774,  was  the  great- 
grandson  of  a  messenger.  I  was  talking  with  great  indignation  that 
the  whole  {1  old)  families  of  the  county  should  be  defeated  by  an  up- 
start.'    Boswclliixna,  p.  2S3. 

'  See  ante,  ii.  68. 

*  See  a7ite,  i.  491.  Hume  wrote  of  the  judgment  of  Charles  I  {Hist, 
of  Efig.  vii.  148)  : — '  If  ever,  on  any  occasion,  it  were  laudable  to  con- 
ceal truth  from  the  populace,  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  doctrine 
of  resistance  affords  such  an  example ;  and  that  all  speculative  rea- 
soners  ought  to  obser\-e  with  regard  to  this  principle  the  same  cau- 
tious silence  which  the  laws  in  every  species  of  government  have  ever 
prescribed  to  themselves.' 

people.' 


1 96  Bishops  as  peers.  [a.d.  1772. 

people.'  Sir  Adam  introduced  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Ro- 
mans. Johnson.  '  Sir,  the  mass  of  both  of  them  were  barba- 
rians. The  mass  of  every  people  must  be  barbarous  where 
there  is  no  printing,  and  consequently  knowledge  is  not  gen- 
erally diffused.  Knowledge  is  diffused  among  our  people  by 
the  news-papers'.'  Sir  Adam  mentioned  the  orators,  poets, 
and  artists  of  Greece.  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  I  am  talking  of  the 
mass  of  the  people.  We  see  even  what  the  boasted  Athe- 
nians were.  The  little  effect  which  Demosthenes's  orations 
had  upon  them,  shews  that  they  were  barbarians".' 

Sir  Adam  was  unlucky  in  his  topicks ;  for  he  suggested  a 
doubt  of  the  propriety  of  Bishops  having  seats  in  the  House 
of  Lords.  Johnson.  '  How  so.  Sir?  Who  is  more  proper 
for  having  the  dignity  of  a  peer,  than  a  Bishop,  provided  a 
Bishop  be  what  he  ought  to  be ;  and  if  improper  Bishops  be 
made,  that  is  not  the  fault  of  the  Bishops,  but  of  those  who 
make  them.' 

On  Sunday,  April  5,  after  attending  divine  service  at  St. 
Paul's  church,  I  found  him  alone.  Of  a  schoolmaster'  of  his 
acquaintance,  a  native  of  Scotland,  he  said, '  He  has  a  great 
deal  of  good  about  him ;  but  he  is  also  very  defective  in 
some  respects.     His  inner  part  is  good,  but  his  outer  part  is 


'  '  All  foreigners  remark  that  the  knowledge  of  the  common  people 
of  England  is  greater  than  that  of  any  other  vulgar.  This  superiority 
we  undoubtedly  owe  to  the  rivulets  of  intelligence  [i.  e.  the  newspa- 
pers] which  are  continually  trickling  among  us,  which  every  one  may 
catch,  and  of  which  every  one  partakes.'  /c/At,  No.  7.  In  a  later  number 
(30),  he  speaks  very  contemptuously  of  news-writers.  '  In  Sir  Henry 
Wotton's  jocular  definition,  an  ambassador  is  said  to  be  a  man  of  virtue 
sent  abroad  to  tell  lies  for  the  advantage  of  his  country.  A  newswriter 
is  a  mati  without  virttie,  who  writes  lies  at  home  for  his  own  profit .' 

"  See  post,  April  3,  1773. 

^  Probably  Mr.  Elphinston.  See  ante,  i.  242, post,  April  19,  1773,  and 
April  I,  1779.  Dr.  A.  Carlyle  (Auto.  p.  493)  wrote  of  a  friend  :— '  He 
had  overcome  many  disadvantages  of  his  education,  for  he  had  been 
sent  to  a  Jacobite  seminary  of  one  Elphinstone  at  Kensington,  where 
his  body  was  starv^ed  and  his  mind  also.  He  returned  to  Edinburgh 
to  college.  He  had  hardly  a  word  of  Latin,  and  was  obliged  to  work 
hard  with  a  private  tutor.' 

mighty 


Aetat.  63.]  Heiiious  siiis.  IQ7 

mighty  aukward.  You  in  Scotland  do  not  attain  that  nice 
critical  skill  in  languages,  which  we  get  in  our  schools  in 
England.  I  would  not  put  a  boy  to  him,  whom  I  intended 
for  a  man  of  learning.  But  for  the  sons  of  citizens,  who  are 
to  learn  a  little,  get  good  morals,  and  then  go  to  trade,  he 
may  do  very  well.' 

I  mentioned  a  cause  in  which  I  had  appeared  as  counsel 
at  the  bar  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, where  a  Probationer'^ ,  (as  one  licensed  to  preach,  but  not 
yet  ordained,  is  called,)  was  opposed  in  his  application  to  be 
inducted,  because  it  was  alledged  that  he  had  been  guilty  of 
fornication  five  years  before.  JOHNSON.  'Why,  Sir,  if  he 
has  repented,  it  is  not  a  sufficient  objection.  A  man  who  is 
good  enough  to  go  to  heaven,  is  good  enough  to  be  a  clergy- 
man.' This  was  a  humane  and  liberal  sentiment.  But  the 
character  of  a  clergyman  is  more  sacred  than  that  of  an  ordi- 
nary Christian.  As  he  is  to  instruct  with  authority,  he  should 
be  regarded  with  reverence,  as  one  upon  whom  divine  truth 
has  had  the  effect  to  set  him  above  such  transgressions,  as 
men  less  exalted  by  spiritual  habits,  and  yet  upon  the  whole 
not  to  be  excluded  from  heaven,  have  been  betrayed  into  by 
the  predominance  of  passion.  That  clergymen  may  be  con- 
sidered as  sinners  in  general,  as  all  men  are,  cannot  be  denied ; 
but  this  reflection  will  not  counteract  their  good  precepts  so 
much,  as  the  absolute  knowledge  of  their  having  been  guilty 
of  certain  spccifick  immoral  acts.  I  told  him,  that  by  the 
rules  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  in  their  Book  of  Discipline, 
if  a  scandal,  as  it  is  called,  is  not  prosecuted  for  five  years,  it 
cannot  afterwards  be  proceeded  upon,  '  unless  it  be  of  a  hei- 
nous nature,  or  again  become  flagrant ;'  and  that  hence  a 
question  arose,  whether  fornication  was  a  sin  of  a  heinous 
nature;  and  that  I  had  maintained,  that  it  did  not  deserve 
that  epithet,  in  as  much  as  it  was  not  one  of  those  sins  which 
argue  very  great  depravity  of  heart :  in  short,  was  not,  in  the 
general  acceptation  of  mankind,  a  heinous  sin.     JOllNSON. 

'  'In  progress  of  time  Abel  Sampson, /r(?/^rt//w/^r  of  divinity,  was 
admitted  to  the  privileges  of  a  preacher.'      Guy  Mcvmerztig,  chap.  ii. 

'  No, 


198  Inequality  of  Church  livings.         [a.d.  1772. 

'  No,  Sir,  it  is  not  a  heinous  sin.  A  heinous  sin  is  that  for 
which  a  man  is  punished  with  death  or  banishment '.'  BOS- 
WELL.  '  But,  Sir,  after  I  had  argued  that  it  was  not  an  hei- 
nous sin,  an  old  clergyman  rose  up,  and  repeating  the  text 
of  scripture  denouncing  judgement  against  whoremongers', 
asked,  whether,  considering  this,  there  could  be  any  doubt 
of  fornication  being  a  heinous  sin.'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir, 
observe  the  word  wliorcmongcr.  Every  sin,  if  persisted  in, 
will  become  heinous.  Whoremonger  is  a  dealer  in  whores ', 
as  ironmonger  is  a  dealer  in  iron.  But  as  you  don't  call  a 
man  an  ironmonger  for  buying  and  selling  a  pen-knife ;  so 
you  don't  call  a  man  a  whoremonger  for  getting  one  wench 
with  child  \' 

I  spoke  of  the  inequality  of  the  livings  of  the  clergy  in 
England,  and  the  scanty  provisions  of  some  of  the  Curates. 
Johnson.  'Why  yes,  Sir;  but  it  cannot  be  helped.  You 
must  consider,  that  the  revenues  of  the  clergy  are  not  at  the 
disposal  of  the  state,  like  the  pay  of  the  army.  Different 
men  have  founded  different  churches ;  and  some  are  better 
endowed,  some  worse.  The  State  cannot  interfere  and  make 
an  equal  division  of  what  has  been  particularly  appropriated. 
Now  when  a  clergyman  has  but  a  small  living,  or  even  two 
small  livings,  he  can  afford  very  little  to  a  curate.' 

He  said,  he  went  more  frequently  to  church  when  there 
were  prayers  only,  than  when  there  was  also  a  sermon,  as 
the  people  required  more  an  example  for  the  one  than  the 
other ;  it  being  much  easier  for  them  to  hear  a  sermon,  than 
to  fix  their  minds  on  prayer. 

On  Monday,  April  6,  I  dined  with  him  at  Sir  Alexander 

>  In  his  Dictionary  he  defines  heinous  as  atrocious;  wicked  in  a  high 
degree. 

*  EpJiesians,  v.  5 .  ' 

^  His  second  definition  of  whoremonger  is  one  who  converses  with  a 
fornicatress. 

"  It  must  not  be  presumed  that  Dr.  Johnson  meant  to  give  any 
countenance  to  licentiousness,  though  in  the  character  of  an  Advo- 
cate he  made  a  just  and  subtle  distinction  between  occasional  and 
habitual  transgression.     Boswell. 

Macdonald's, 


Aetat.  63.]  Hon.  Tliomas  Erskinc.  199 

Macdonald's,  where  was  a  young  officer  in  the  regimentals 
of  the  Scots  Royal,  who  talked  with  a  vivacity,  fluency,  and 
precision  so  uncommon,  that  he  attracted  particular  atten- 
tion. He  proved  to  be  the  Honourable  Thomas  Erskine, 
youngest  brother  to  the  Earl  of  Buchan,  who  has  since  risen 
into  such  brilliant  reputation  at  the  bar  in  Westminster- 
hall'. 

Fielding  being  mentioned,  Johnson  exclaimed,  '  he  was  a 
blockhead  * ;'  and  upon  my  expressing  my  astonishment  at 
so  strange  an  assertion,  he  said,  '  What  I  mean  by  his  being 
a  blockhead  is  that  he  was  a  barren  rascal.'  BOSWELL. 
'  Will  you  not  allow.  Sir,  that  he  draws  very  natural  pictures 
of  human  life?'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir,  it  is  of  very  low  life. 
Richardson  used  to  say,  that  had  he  not  known  who  Field- 
ing was,  he  should  have  believed  he  was  an  hostler  \     Sir, 

*  Erskine  was  born  in  1750,  entered  the  navy  in  1764,  the  army  in 
1768,  he  matriculated  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  in  1 776,  was  called 
to  the  Bar  in  1778,  was  made  a  King's  counsel  in  1783,  and  Lord  Chan- 
cellor in  1806.     He  died  in  1823.     Campbell's  CkajiceHorSyWi.  2)^2>-6j4.. 

*  Johnson  had  called  Churchill 'a blockhead.'  Seca/z/t', i.485.  'I  have 
remarked,'  said  Miss  Reynolds,  '  that  his  dislike  of  anyone  seldom 
prompted  him  to  say  much  more  than  that  the  fellow  is  a  blockhead.' 
Croker's  Boswcll,  p.  834.  In  like  manner  Goldsmith  called  Sterne  a 
blockhead;  for  Mr.  Forster  {Life  of  Goldsmith,  i.  260)  is,  no  doubt, 
right  in  saying  that  the  author  of  Tristram  Shajidy  is  aimed  at  in  the 
following  passage  in  T/ie  Citizen  of  the  IVor/d  (Letter  74)  : — '  In  Eng- 
land, if  a  bawdy  blockhead  thus  breaks  in  on  the  community,  he  sets 
his  whole  fraternity  in  a  roar;  nor  can  he  escape  even  though  he 
should  fly  to  nobility  for  shelter.'  That  Johnson  did  not  think  so 
lowly  of  Fielding's  powers  is  shown  by  a  compliment  that  he  paid 
Miss  Burney,  on  one  of  the  characters  in  Evelina.  '  "  Oh,  Mr.  Smith, 
Mr.  Smith  is  the  man  !"  cried  he,  laughing  violently.  *'  Harry  Field- 
ing never  drew  so  good  a  character !"  '     Mme.  D'Arblay's  Diary,  i.  78. 

'  Richardson  wrote  of  Fielding  {Corres.  vi.  1 54) : — '  Poor  Fielding ! 
I  could  not  help  telling  his  sister  that  I  was  equally  surprised  at  and 
concerned  for  his  continued  lowness.  Had  your  brother,  said  I,  been 
born  in  a  stable,  or  been  a  runner  at  a  sponging-house,  we  should  have 
thought  him  a  genius,  and  wished  he  had  had  the  advantage  of  a  lib- 
eral education,  and  of  being  admitted  into  good  company.'  Other 
passages  show  Richardson's  dislike  or  jealousy  of  Fielding.  Thus  he 
wrote  : — '  You  guess  that  I  have  not  read  Amelia.    Indeed,  I  have  read 

there 


200  Richardson  and  Fielding.  [a.d.  1772. 

there  is  more  knowledge  of  the  heart  in  one  letter  of  Rich- 
ardson's, than  in  all  Tom  Jones '.  I,  indeed,  never  read  Jo- 
scpJi  Andrcivs'^.''  Erskine.  '  Surely,  Sir,  Richardson  is  very 
tedious."  Johnson.  'Why,  Sir,  if  you  were  to  read  Rich- 
ardson  for  the  story,  your  impatience  would  be   so   much 


but  the  first  volume.  I  had  intended  to  go  through  with  it ;  but  I 
found  the  characters  and  situations  so  wretchedly  low  and  dirty  that 
I  imagined  I  could  not  be  interested  for  any  one  of  them.'  lb.  iv.  60. 
'  So  long  as  the  world  will  receive,  Mr.  Fielding  will  write.'    lb.  p.  285. 

'  Hannah  More  wrote  in  1780  {iMejnoi'rs,  i.  168), '  I  never  saw  John- 
son really  angry  with  me  but  once.  I  alluded  to  some  witty  passage 
in  Tom  Jones  ;  he  replied,  "I  am  shocked  to  hear  you  quote  from  so 
vicious  a  book.  I  am  sorry  to  hear  you  have  read  it :  a  confession 
which  no  modest  lady  should  ever  make.  I  scarcely  know  a  more 
corrupt  work  !"  He  went  so  far  as  to  refuse  to  Fielding  the  great  tal- 
ents which  are  ascribed  to  him,  and  broke  out  into  a  noble  panegyric 
on  his  competitor,  Richardson  ;  who,  he  said,  was  as  superior  to  him 
in  talents  as  in  virtue ;  and  whom  he  pronounced  to  be  the  greatest 
genius  that  had  shed  its  lustre  on  this  path  of  literature.'  Yet  Miss 
Burney  in  her  Preface  to  Evelina  describes  herself  as  '  exhilarated  by 
the  wit  of  Fielding  and  humour  of  Smollett.'  It  is  strange  that  while 
Johnson  thus  condemned  Fielding,  he  should  '  with  an  ardent  and  lib- 
eral earnestness  '  have  revised  Smollett's  epitaph.  Boswell's  Hebrides, 
Oct.  28,  1773.  Macaulay  in  his  Speech  ott  Copyright  {Writings  and 
Speeches,  p.  615)  said  of  Richardson's  novels  : — '  No  writings  have  done 
more  to  raise  the  fame  of  English  genius  in  foreign  countries.  No 
writings  are  more  deeply  pathetic.  No  writings,  those  of  Shakespeare 
excepted,  show  more  profound  knowledge  of  the  human  heart.'  Hor- 
ace Walpole  {Letters,  iv.  305),  on  the  other  hand,  spoke  of  Richardson 
as  one  '  who  wrote  those  deplorably  tedious  lamentations,  Clarissa 
and  Sir  Charles  Grandison,  which  are  pictures  of  high  life  as  conceived 
by  a  bookseller,  and  romances  as  they  would  be  spiritualised  by  a 
methodist  teacher.'  Lord  Chesterfield  says  of  Sir  Charles  Grandison, 
that '  it  is  too  long,  and  there  is  too  much  mere  talk  in  it.  Whenever 
he  goes  ultra  crepidam  mto  high  life,  he  grossly  mistakes  the  modes ; 
but  to  do  him  justice  he  never  mistakes  nature,  and  he  has  surely 
great  knowledge  and  skill  both  in  painting  and  in  interesting  the 
heart.'     /^.  note.     See  a«/t',  ii.  55. 

"^  Amelia  he  read  through  without  stopping.  Post,  April  12,  1776. 
Shenstone  ( Works,  iii.  70)  writes  of  '  the  tedious  character  of  Parson 
Adams,'  and  calls  the  book  '  a  very  mean  performance ;  of  which  the 
greater  part  is  unnatural  and  unhumorous.' 

fretted 


Aetat.  63.]  Richarclsoii  and  Fielding.  201 

fretted  that  you  would  hang  yourself.  But  you  must  read 
him  for  the  sentiment,  and  consider  the  story  as  only  giving 
occasion  to  the  sentiment.' — I  have  already  given  my  opin- 
ion of  Fielding ;  but  I  cannot  refrain  from  repeating  here 
my  wonder  at  Johnson's  excessive  and  unaccountable  depre- 
ciation of  one  of  the  best  writers  that  England  has  produced. 
Tom  Jones  has  stood  the  test  of  publick  opinion  with  such 
success,  as  to  have  established  its  great  merit,  both  for  the 
story,  the  sentiments,  and  the  manners,  and  also  the  varieties 
of  diction,  so  as  to  leave  no  doubt  of  its  having  an  animated 
truth  of  execution  throughout ". 

A  book  of  travels,  lately  published  under  the  title  of  Co- 
riat  Junior,  and  written  by  Mr.  Paterson ',  was  mentioned. 
Johnson  said,  this  book  was  an  imitation  of  Sterne  \  and  not 
of  Coriat,  whose  name  Paterson  had  chosen  as  a  whimsical 

'  Johnson  wrote  to  Richardson  of  Clarissa,  'though  the  story  is 
long,  every  letter  is  short.'  He  begged  him  to  add  an  index  rcrum, 
'  for  Clarissa  is  not  a  performance  to  be  read  with  eagerness,  and  laid 
aside  for  ever;  but  will  be  occasionally  consulted  by  the  busy,  the 
aged,  and  the  studious.'     Richardson's  Corrcs.  v.  281. 

"  '  Our  immortal  Fielding  was  of  the  younger  branch  of  the  Earls 
of  Denbigh,  who  draw  their  origin  from  the  Counts  of  Habsburg,  the 
lineal  descendants  of  Eltrico,  in  the  seventh  century  Duke  of  Alsace. 
Far  different  have  been  the  fortunes  of  the  English  and  German  divis- 
ions of  the  family  of  Habsburg:  the  former,  the  knights  and  sheriffs 
of  Leicestershire,  have  slowly  risen  to  the  dignity  of  a  peerage:  the 
latter,  the  Emperors  of  Germany  and  Kings  of  Spain,  have  threatened 
the  liberty  of  the  old,  and  invaded  the  treasures  of  the  new  world. 
The  successors  of  Charles  the  Fifth  may  disdain  their  brethren  of 
England  ;  but  the  romance  of  Tom  Jones,  that  exquisite  picture  of 
human  manners,  will  outlive  the  palace  of  the  Escurial,  and  the  impe- 
rial eagle  of  the  house  of  Austria.'  Gibbon's  Afisc.  IVor/cs,  i.  4.  Rich- 
ardson, five  years  after  Tom  Jones  was  published,  wrote  {Corrcs.  v.  275) : 
— '  Its  run  is  over,  even  with  us.  Is  it  true  that  France  had  virtue 
enough  to  refuse  a  license  for  such  a  profligate  performance  ?' 

'  Mr.  Samuel  Paterson,  eminent  for  his  knowledge  of  books.  Bos- 
well.  In  the  first  two  editions  this  note  does  not  appear,  but  Mr. 
Paterson  is  described  as  '  the  auctioneer.'     Sec  post,  Aug.  3,  1776. 

■*  Mr.  Paterson,  in  a  pamphlet,  produced  some  evidence  to  shew 
that  his  work  was  written  before  Sterne's  Sentimental  Journey  ap- 
peared.    BOSWELL. 

one. 


202  Gaming.  [a.d  1772. 

one.  '  Tom  Coriat,  (said  he,)  was  a  humourist  about  the 
court  of  James  the  First.  He  had  a  mixture  of  learning, 
of  wit,  and  of  buffoonery.  He  first  travelled  through  Eu- 
rope, and  published  his  travels '.  He  afterwards  travelled 
on  foot  through  Asia,  and  had  made  many  remarks  ;  but 
he  died  at  Mandoa,  and  his  remarks  were  lost.' 

We  talked  of  gaming,  and  animadverted  on  it  with  sever- 
ity. Johnson.  '  Nay,  gentlemen,  let  us  not  aggravate  the 
matter.  It  is  not  roguery  to  play  with  a  man  who  is  igno- 
rant of  the  game,  while  you  are  master  of  it,  and  so  win  his 
money ;  for  he  thinks  he  can  play  better  than  you,  as  you 
think  you  can  play  better  than  he ;  and  the  superiour  skill 
carries  it.'  Erskine.  *  He  is  a  fool,  but  you  are  not  a  rogue.' 
Johnson.  '  That's  much  about  the  truth,  Sir.  It  must  be 
considered,  that  a  man  who  only  does  what  every  one  of 
the  society  to  which  he  belongs  would  do,  is  not  a  dishonest 
man.  In  the  republick  of  Sparta,  it  was  agreed,  that  steal- 
ing was  not  dishonourable,  if  not  discovered.  I  do  not  com- 
mend a  society  where  there  is  an  agreement  that  what  would 
not  otherwise  be  fair,  shall  be  fair ;  but  I  maintain,  that  an 
individual  of  any  society,  who  practises  what  is  allowed,  is 
not  a  dishonest  man.'  BOSWELL.  'So  then,  Sir,  you  do  not 
think  ill  of  a  man  who  wins  perhaps  forty  thousand  pounds 
in  a  winter?'  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  I  do  not  call  a  gamester  a  dis- 
honest man ;  but  I  call  him  an  unsocial  man,  an  unprofitable 
man.  Gaming  is  a  mode  of  transferring  property  without 
producing  any  intermediate  good.  Trade  gives  employment 
to  numbers,  and  so  produces  intermediate  good.' 

Mr.  Erskine  told  us,  that  when  he  was  in  the  island  of 
Minorca,  he  not  only  read  prayers,  but  preached  two  sermons 
to  the  regiment  \  He  seemed  to  object  to  the  passage  in 
scripture  where  we  are  told   that  the  angel   of  the  Lord 

'  Coryafs  Crudities  hastily  goblcd  tip  in  Jive  JMoncths  Traiiells  in 
France,  Saitoy,  Italy,  &^c.     London,  i6i  i. 

*  '  Lord  Erskine,'  says  Mr.  Croker,  'was  fond  of  this  anecdote.  He 
told  it  to  me  the  first  time  that  I  was  in  his  company,  and  often  re- 
peated it,  boasting  that  he  had  been  a  sailor,  a  soldier,  a  lawyer,  and  a 
parson.' 

smote 


Aetat.  63.]  Families  and  commerce.  203 

smote  in  one  night  forty  thousand  Assyrians  \  '  Sir,  (said 
Johnson,)  you  should  recollect  that  there  was  a  supernatural 
interposition  ;  they  were  destroyed  by  pestilence.  You  are 
not  to  suppose  that  the  angel  of  the  Lord  went  about  and 
stabbed  each  of  them  with  a  dagger,  or  knocked  them  on 
the  head,  man  by  man.' 

After  Mr.  Erskine  was  gone,  a  discussion  took  place, 
whether  the  present  Earl  of  Buchan,  when  Lord  Cardross, 
did  right  to  refuse  to  go  Secretary  of  the  Embassy  to  Spain, 
when  Sir  James  Gray,  a  man  of  inferiour  rank,  went  Am- 
bassadour".  Dr.  Johnson  said,  that  perhaps  in  point  of  in- 
terest he  did  wrong;  but  in  point  of  dignity  he  did  well. 
Sir  Alexander  insisted  that  he  was  wrong ;  and  said  that 
Mr.  Pitt  intended  it  as  an  advantageous  thing  for  him. 
'Why,  Sir,  (said  Johnson,)  Mr.  Pitt  might  think  it  an  ad- 
vantageous thing  for  him  to  make  him  a  vintner,  and  get 
him  all  the  Portugal  trade ;  but  he  would  have  demeaned 
himself  strangely  had  he  accepted  of  such  a  situation.  Sir, 
had  he  gone  Secretary  while  his  inferiour  was  Ambassadour, 
he  would  have  been  a  traitor  to  his  rank  and  family.' 

I  talked  of  the  little  attachment  which  subsisted  between 
near  relations  in  London.  '  Sir,  (said  Johnson,)  in  a  country 
so  commercial  as  ours,  where  eveiy  man  can  do  for  himself, 
there  is  not  so  much  occasion  for  that  attachment.  No  man 
is  thought  the  worse  of  here,  whose  brother  was  hanged.  In 
uncommercial  countries,  many  of  the  branches  of  a  family 
must  depend  on  the  stock ;  so,  in  order  to  make  the  head 
of  the   family  take   care   of  them,  they  arc   represented  as 


'  185,000.    2  AVz/^'-.s-,  xix.  35. 

*  Lord  Chatham  wrote  on  Oct.  12,  1766,  to  Lord  Shelburne  that 
he  '  had  extremely  at  heart  to  obtain  this  post  for  Lord  Cardross,  a 
young  nobleman  of  great  talents,  learning,  and  accomplishments,  and 
son  of  the  Earl  of  Buchan,  an  intimate  friend  of  Lord  Chatham,  from 
the  time  they  were  students  together  at  Utrecht.'  Chatham  Corrcs. 
iii.  106.  Horace  Walpolc  wrote  on  Oct.  26, 'Sir  James  Gray  goes  to 
Madrid.  The  embassy  has  been  sadly  hawked  about ;  not  a  peer  that 
would  take  it.'  Walpole's  Letters,  v.  22.  '  Sir  James  Gray's  father 
was  first  a  box-keeper,  and  then  footman  to  James  IL'     lb.  ii.  366. 

connected 


204  Ghosts  and  Witches.  [a.d.  1772. 

connected  with  his  reputation,  that,  self-love  being  interested, 
he  may  exert  himself  to  promote  their  interest.  You  have 
first  large  circles,  or  clans ;  as  commerce  increases,  the  con- 
nection is  confined  to  families.  By  degrees,  that  too  goes 
off,  as  having  become  unnecessary,  and  there  being  few  op- 
portunities of  intercourse.  One  brother  is  a  merchant  in 
the  city,  and  another  is  an  officer  in  the  guards.  How  little 
intercourse  can  these  two  have !' 

I  argued  warmly  for  the  old  feudal  system  '.  Sir  Alex- 
ander opposed  it,  and  talked  of  the  pleasure  of  seeing  all 
men  free  and  independent.  JOHNSON.  '  I  agree  with  Mr. 
Boswell  that  there  must  be  a  high  satisfaction  in  being  a 
feudal  Lord  ;  but  we  are  to  consider,  that  we  ought  not  to 
wish  to  have  a  number  of  men  unhappy  for  the  satisfaction 
of  one^' — I  maintained  that  numbers,  namely,  the  vassals 
or  followers,  were  not  unhappy ;  for  that  there  was  a  recip- 
rocal satisfaction  between  the  Lord  and  them :  he  being 
kind  in  his  authority  over  them*;  they  being  respectful  and 
faithful  to  him. 

On  Thursday,  April  9,  I  called  on  him  to  beg  he  would 
go  and  dine  with  me  at  the  Mitre  tavern.  He  had  resolved 
not  to  dine  at  all  this  day,  I  know  not  for  what  reason ;  and 
I  was  so  unwilling  to  be  deprived  of  his  company,  that  I 
was  content  to  submit  to  suffer  a  want,  which  was  at  first 
somewhat  painful,  but  he  soon  made  me  forget  it ;  and  a 
man  is  always  pleased  with  himself  when  he  finds  his  in- 
tellectual inclinations  predominate. 

He  observed,  that  to  reason  philosophically  on  the  nature 
of  prayer,  was  very  unprofitable. 

Talking  of  ghosts ',  he  said,  he  knew  one  friend,  who  was 
an  honest  man  and  a  sensible  man,  who  told  him  he  had 
seen  a  ghost,  old  Mr.  Edward  Cave,  the  printer  at  St.  John's 

*  See  aiite,  ii.  155,  for  Johnson's  attack  on  Lord  Chatham's  'feudal 
gabble.' 

^  In  Boswell's  Hebrides,  on  Aug.  25,  1773,  Johnson  makes  much  the 
same  answer  to  a  like  statement  by  Boswell.     See  post,  March  21, 

1783. 
'  See  ante,  i.  397,  469,  and  post,  April  10,  1772. 

Gate. 


Aetat.  63.]  GJiosts  and  witches.  205 

Gate.  He  said,  Mr.  Cave  did  not  like  to  talk  of  it,  and 
seemed  to  be  in  great  horrour  whenever  it  was  mentioned. 
BOSWELL.  '  Pray,  Sir,  what  did  he  say  was  the  appearance  ?' 
Johnson.  '  Why,  Sir,  something  of  a  shadowy  being.' 

I  mentioned  witches,  and  asked  him  what  they  properly 
meant.  JOHNSON.  'Why,  Sir,  they  properly  mean  those 
who  make  use  of  the  aid  of  evil  spirits.'  BosWELL.  '  There 
is  no  doubt.  Sir,  a  general  report  and  belief  of  their  having 
existed '.'  JOHNSON.  '  You  have  not  only  the  general  re- 
port and  belief,  but  you  have  many  voluntary  solemn  con- 
fessions.' He  did  not  afifirm  any  thing  positively  upon  a 
subject  which  it  is  the  fashion  of  the  times  to  laugh  at  as 
a  matter  of  absurd  credulity.  He  only  seemed  willing,  as  a 
candid  enquirer  after  truth,  however  strange  and  inexplica- 
ble, to  shew  that  he  understood  what  might  be  urged  for  it\ 

On  Friday,  April  10,  I  dined  with  him  at  General  Ogle- 
thorpe's, where  we  found  Dr.  Goldsmith. 

Armorial  bearings  having  been  mentioned,  Johnson  said 
they  were  as  ancient  as  the  siege  of  Thebes,  which  he  proved 
by  a  passage  in  one  of  the  tragedies  of  Euripides  ^ 

'  '  I  cannot,'  wrote  John  Wesley  {Journal,  iv.  74),  'give  up  to  all  the 
Deists  in  Great  Britain  the  existence  of  witchcraft,  till  I  give  up  the 
credit  of  all  histor\',  sacred  and  profane.  And  at  the  present  time,  I 
have  not  only  as  strong  but  stronger  proofs  of  this  from  eye  and  ear 
witnesses  than  I  have  of  murder ;  so  that  I  cannot  rationally  doubt 
of  one  any  more  than  the  other.' 

'  See  this  curious  question  treated  by  him  with  most  acute  ability, 
fojirttal  of  a  Tour  to  the  Hebrides,  3rd  edit.  p.  33.  [Aug.  16.]  Bos- 
WKi.L.  Johnson,  in  his  Observations  on  Macbeth  (Works,  y.  55-7), 
shews  his  utter  disbelief  in  witchcraft.  '  These  phantoms,'  he  writes, 
'  have  indeed  appeared  more  frequently  in  proportion  as  the  darkness 
of  ignorance  has  been  more  gross ;  but  it  cannot  be  shewn  that  the 
brightest  gleams  of  knowledge  have  at  any  time  been  suflicicnt  to 
drive  them  out  of  the  world.'  He  describes  the  spread  of  the  belief 
in  them  in  the  middle  ages,  and  adds: — 'The  reformation  did  not  im- 
mediately arrive  at  its  meridian,  and  though  day  was  gradually  increas- 
ing upon  us,  the  goblins  of  witchcraft  still  continued  to  hover  in  the 
twilight.'     See  post,  April  8,  1779  and  1780,  in  Mr.  Langton's  Collection. 

'  The  passage  to  which  Johnson  alluded  is  to  be  found  (I  conject- 
ure) in  the  Pha'nissce,  1.  1 120.     J.  Boswell,  Jun. 

I  started 


2o6  The  lawfulness  of  dtielli7ig.  [a.d.  1773. 

I  started  the  question  whether  duelHng  was  consistent 
with  moral  duty.  The  brave  old  General  fired  at  Ihis,  and 
said,  with  a  lofty  air,  '  Undoubtedly  a  man  has  a  right  to 
defend  his  honour.'  Goldsmith,  (turning  to  me.)  '  I  ask 
you  first,  Sir,  what  would  you  do  if  you  were  affronted  ?' 
I  answered  I  should  think  it  necessary  to  fight '.  '  Why 
then,  (replied  Goldsmith,)  that  solves  the  question.'  JOHN- 
SON. '  No,  Sir,  it  does  not  solve  the  question.  It  does  not 
follow  that  what  a  man  would  do  is  therefore  right.'  I  said, 
I  wished  to  have  it  settled,  whether  duelling  was  contrary 
to  the  laws  of  Christianity.  Johnson  immediately  entered 
on  the  subject,  and  treated  it  in  a  masterly  manner ;  and  so 
far  as  I  have  been  able  to  recollect,  his  thoughts  were  these: 
'  Sir,  as  men  become  in  a  high  degree  refined,  various  causes 
of  offence  arise ;  which  are  considered  to  be  of  such  im- 
portance, that  life  must  be  staked  to  atone  for  them,  though 
in  reality  they  are  not  so.  A  body  that  has  received  a  very 
fine  polish  may  be  easily  hurt.  Before  men  arrive  at  this 
artificial  refinement,  if  one  tells  his  neighbour  he  lies,  his 
neighbour  tells  him  he  lies ;  if  one  gives  his  neighbour  a 
blow,  his  neighbour  gives  him  a  blow :  but  in  a  state  of 
highly  polished  society,  an  affront  is  held  to  be  a  serious 
injury.  It  must  therefore  be  resented,  or  rather  a  duel  must 
be  fought  upon  it ;  as  men  have  agreed  to  banish  from  their 
society  one  who  puts  up  with  an  affront  without  fighting  a 
duel.  Now,  Sir,  it  is  never  unlawful  to  fight  in  self-defence. 
He,  then,  who  fights  a  duel,  does  not  fight  from  passion 
against  his  antagonist,  but  out  of  self-defence ;  to  avert  the 
stigma  of  the  world,  and  to  prevent  himself  from  being 
driven   out   of   society.     I   could  wish   there  was   not   that 

■  Boswell  (Letters,  p.  324).  on  June  21, 1790,  described  to  Temple  the 
insults  of  that '  brutal  fellow,'  Lord  Lonsdale,  and  continued  : — '  In  my 
fretfulness  I  used  such  expressions  as  irritated  him  almost  to  iwry,  so 
that  he  used  such  expressions  towards  me  that  I  should  have,  accord- 
ing to  the  irrational  laws  of  honour  sanctioned  by  the  world,  been 
under  the  necessity  of  risking  my  life,  had  not  an  explanation  taken 
place.'  Boswell's  eldest  son.  Sir  Alexander  Boswell,  lost  his  life  in  a 
duel. 

superfluity 


Aetat.  63.]  The  lawfulness  of  duelling.  207 

superfluity  of  refinement ;  but  while  such  notions  prevail, 
no  doubt  a  man  may  lawfully  fight  a  due' '.' 

Let  it  be  remembered,  that  this  justification  is  applicable 
only  to  the  person  who  receives  an  affront.  All  mankind 
must  condemn  the  aggressor. 

The  General  told  us,  that  when  he  was  a  very  young  man, 
I  think  only  fifteen  \  serving  under  Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy, 
he  was  sitting  in  a  company  at  table  with  a  Prince  of  Wir- 
temberg.  The  Prince  took  up  a  glass  of  wine,  and,  by  a 
fillip,  made  some  of  it  fly  in  Oglethorpe's  face.  Here  was 
a  nice  dilemma.  To  have  challenged  him  instantly,  might 
have  fixed  a  quarrelsome  character  upon  the  young  soldier: 
to  have  taken  no  notice  of  it  might  have  been  considered  as 
cowardice.  Oglethorpe,  therefore,  keeping  his  eye  upon 
the  Prince,  and  smiling  all  the  time,  as  if  he  took  what  his 
Highness  had  done  in  jest,  said  ^  Mon  Prince, — '  (I  forget 
the  French  words  he  used,  the  purport  however  was,)  'That's 
a  good  joke ;  but  we  do  it  much  better  in  England  ;'  and 
threw  a  whole  glass  of  wine  in  the  Prince's  face.  An  old 
General  who  sat  by,  said, '  //  a  bien  fait,  inon  Prince,  vous 
laves  conimencS  y  and  thus  all  ended  in  good  humour. 

Dr.  Johnson  said,  '  Pray,  General,  give  us  an  account  of 
the  siege  of  Belgrade  \'     Upon  which  the  General,  pouring 

'  Johnson  might  have  quoted  the  Heutenant  in  Tom  Jones,  Book 
vii.  chap.  13.  '  My  dear  boy,  be  a  good  Christian  as  long  as  you  live  : 
but  be  a  man  of  honour  too,  and  never  put  up  an  affront ;  not  all  the 
books,  nor  all  the  parsons  in  the  world,  shall  ever  persuade  me  to 
that.  I  love  my  religion  very  well,  but  I  love  my  honour  more. 
There  must  be  some  mistake  in  the  wording  of  the  text,  or  in  the 
translation,  or  in  the  understanding  it,  or  somewhere  or  other.  But 
however  that  be,  a  man  must  run  the  risk,  for  he  must  preserve  his 
honour.'  See  post,  April  19,  1773,  and  April  20,  1783,  and  Boswell's 
Hebrides,  Sept.  19,  1773. 

^  Oglethorpe  was  born  in  169S.  In  1714  he  entered  the  army. 
Prince  Eugene's  campaigns  again.st  the  Turks  in  which  Oglethorpe 
served  were  in  1716-17.  Rose's  Bi'og.  Dict.xW.  266  and  x.  3S1.  He 
was  not  therefore  quite  so  young  as  Boswell  thought. 

^  In  the  first  two  editions  Bender.  Belgrade  was  taken  by  Eugene 
in  1717. 

a  little 


2o8  Friendship.  [a-d.  1772. 

a  little  wine  upon  the  table,  described  every  thing  with  a 
wet  finger:  'Here  we  were,  here  were  the  Turks,"  &c.  &c. 
Johnson  listened  with  the  closest  attention. 

A  question  was  started,  how  far  people  who  disagree  in  a 
capital  point  can  live  in  friendship  together.  Johnson  said 
they  might.  Goldsmith  said  they  could  not,  as  they  had  not 
the  idem  velle  atque  idem  7iollc ' — the  same  likings  and  the 
same  aversions.  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir,  you  must  shun  the 
subject  as  to  which  you  disagree.  For  instance,  I  can  live 
very  well  with  Burke :  I  love  his  knowledge,  his  genius,  his 
diffusion,  and  affluence  of  conversation  ;  but  I  would  not  talk 
to  him  of  the  Rockingham  party.'  GOLDSMITH.  '  But,  Sir, 
when  people  live  together  who  have  something  as  to  which 
they  disagree,  and  which  they  want  to  shun,  they  will  be  in 
the  situation  mentioned  in  the  story  of  Bluebeard :  "  You 
may  look  into  all  the  chambers  but  one."  But  we  should 
have  the  greatest  inclination  to  look  into  that  chamber,  to 
talk  of  that  subject.'  Johnson,  (with  a  loud  voice.)  '  Sir,  I 
am  not  saying  that  you  could  live  in  friendship  with  a  man 
from  whom  you  differ  as  to  some  point :  I  am  only  saying 
that  /could  do  it.   You  put  me  in  mind  of  Sappho  in  Ovid^' 

Goldsmith  told  us,  that  he  was  now  busy  in  writing  a  nat- 
ural history  ^  and,  that  he  might  have  full  leisure  for  it,  he 

'  '  Idem  velle  atque  idem  nolle  ea  demum  firma  amicitia  est.'  Sal- 
lust,  Catilina,  xx.  4. 

"^  More  than  one  conjecture  has  been  hazarded  as  to  the  passage  to 
which  Johnson  referred.    I  believe  that  he  was  thinking  of  the  lines — 
'  Et  variis  albae  junguntur  saepe  columbae ; 
Et  niger  a  viridi  turtur  amatur  ave.' 

Sappho  to  P/iaon,  line  37. 
'  Turtles  and  doves  of  differing  hues  unite, 
And  glossy  jet  is  paired  with  shining  white.'     (Pope.) 
Goldsmith  had  said  that  people  to  live  in  friendship  together  must 
have  the  same  likings  and  aversions.     Johnson  thereupon  calls  to 
mind  Sappho,  who  had  shown  that  there  could  be  love  where  there 
was  little  likeness. 

^  It  was  not  published  till  after  Goldsmith's  death.  It  is  in  the  list 
of  new  books  in  the  Gent.  Mag.  for  Aug.  1774,  p.  378.  See  posf,  under 
June  22,  1776,  the  note  on  Goldsmith's  epitaph. 

had 


Aetat.  63.]         GoldsmWi  s  country  lodgings.  209 

had  taken  lodgings,  at  a  farmer's  house,  near  to  the  six  mile- 
stone, on  the  Edgeware  road,  and  had  carried  down  his 
books  in  two  returned  post-chaises.  He  said,  he  believed 
the  farmer's  family  thought  him  an  odd  character,  similar 
to  that  in  which  TJic  Spectator  appeared  to  his  landlady 
and  her  children:  he  was  TJic  Gcntlcuian\  Mr.  Mickle,  the 
translator  of  The  Lusiad'\  and  I  went  to  visit  him  at  this 
place  a  few  days  afterwards.  He  was  not  at  home;  but 
having  a  curiosity  to  see  his  apartment,  we  went  in  and 
found  curious  scraps  of  descriptions  of  animals,  scrawled 
upon  the  wall  with  a  black  lead  pencil". 

The  subject  of  ghosts  being  introduced,  Johnson  repeated 
what  he  had  told  me  of  a  friend  of  his,  an  honest  man,  and 
a  man  of  sense,  having  asserted  to  him,  that  he  had  seen 
an  apparition".  Goldsmith  told  us,  he  was  assured  by  his 
brother,  the  Reverend  Mr.  Goldsmith,  that  he  also  had  seen 
one.  General  Oglethorpe  told  us,  that  Prendergast,  an  of- 
ficer in  the  Duke  of  Marlborough's  army,  had  mentioned  to 
many  of  his  friends,  that  he  should  die  on  a  particular  day. 
That  upon  that  day  a  battle  took  place  with  the  French ; 
that  after  it  was  over,  and  Prendergast  was  still  alive,  his 

'  '  Upon  my  opening  the  door  the  young  women  broke  off  their  dis- 
course, but  my  landlady's  daughters  telling  them  that  it  was  nobody 
but  the  Gentleman  (for  that  is  the  name  that  I  go  by  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood as  well  as  in  the  family),  they  went  on  without  minding 
me.'     Spectator,  No.  12. 

*  The  author  also  of  the  Ballad  of  Cumnor  Hall.  See  Scott's  Iti- 
trodiiction  to  Kenilivorth.  Bishop  Home  says  that  '  Mickle  inserted 
in  the  Lustad  an  angry  note  against  Garrick,  who,  as  he  thought,  had 
used  him  ill  by  rejecting  a  tragedy  of  his.'  Shortly  afterwards,  he 
saw  Garrick  act  for  the  first  time.  The  play  was  Lear.  '  During  the 
first  three  acts  he  said  not  a  word.  In  a  fine  passage  of  the  fourth  he 
fetched  a  deep  sigh,  and  turning  to  a  friend,"!  wish,"  said  he,  "the 
note  was  out  of  my  book."  '  Home's  Essays,  ed.  180S,  p.  2^.  See  post, 
under  Dec.  24,  1783,  and  Garrick's  letter  in  BosweU's  Hebrides,  Oct.  23, 

1773- 
'  The  farmer's  son  told  Mr.  Prior  that '  he  had  felt  much  reluctance 

in  erasing  during  necessary  repairs  these  memorials.'  Prior's  Gold- 
smith, ii.  335. 

*  See  ante,  ii.  204. 

n. — 14  brother 


2IO  Death  of  P render gast.  [a.d.  1773. 

brother  officers,  while  they  were  yet  in  the  field,  jestingly 
asked  him,  where  w^as  his  prophecy  now.  Prendergast 
gravely  answered,  '  I  shall  die,  notwithstanding  what  you 
see.'  Soon  afterwards,  there  came  a  shot  from  a  French 
battery,  to  which  the  orders  for  a  cessation  of  arms  had  not 
yet  reached,  and  he  was  killed  upon  the  spot.  Colonel 
Cecil,  who  took  possession  of  his  effects,  found  in  his 
pocket-book  the  following  solemn  entry : 

[Here  the  date.]     '  Dreamt — or '  Sir  John  Friend 

meets  me:'  (here  the  very  day  on  which  he  was  killed,  was 
mentioned.)  Prendergast  had  been  connected  with  Sir  John 
Friend,  who  was  executed  for  high  treason.  General  Ogle- 
thorpe said,  he  was  with  Colonel  Cecil  when  Pope  came  and 
enquired  into  the  truth  of  this  story,  which  made  a  great 
noise  at  the  time,  and  was  then  confirmed  by  the  Colonel. 

On  Saturday,  April  11,  he  appointed  me  to  come  to  him 
in  the  evening,  when  he  should  be  at  leisure  to  give  me  some 
assistance  for  the  defence  of  Hastie,  the  schoolmaster  of 
Campbelltown,  for  whom  I  was  to  appear  in  the  House  of 
Lords.  When  I  came,  I  found  him  unwilling  to  exert  him- 
self.    I  pressed  him  to  write  down  his  thoughts  upon  the 

^  Here  was  a  blank,  which  may  be  filled  up  thus:  — ' tuas  told  by 
an  apparition  ;' — the  writer  being  probably  uncertain  whether  he  was 
asleep  or  awake,  when  his  mind  was  impressed  with  the  solemn  pre- 
sentiment with  which  the  fact  afterwards  happened  so  wonderfully  to 
correspond.  Boswell.  '  Lord  Hardinge,  when  Secretary  at  War,' 
writes  Mr.  Croker,  '  informed  me,  that  it  appears  that  Colonel  Sir 
Thomas  Prendergast,  of  the  twenty-second  foot,  was  killed  at  Mal- 
plaquet,  Aug.  31,  1709 ;  but  no  trace  can  be  found  of  any  Colonel  Cecil 
in  the  army  at  that  period.  Colonel  W.  Cecil,  who  was  sent  to  the 
Tower  in  1744,  could  hardly  have  been,  in  1709,  of  the  age  and  rank 
which  Oglethorpe's  anecdote  seems  to  imply.'  Prendergast,  or  Pen- 
dergrass,  in  the  year  1696,  informed  the  government  of  the  plot  to 
assassinate  William  III.,  in  which  Friend  was  one  of  the  leaders. 
Macaulay  {Hist,  of  Eng.  chap.  21),  calls  Prcndergrass  '  a  Roman  Catho- 
lic gentleman  of  known  courage  and  honour.'  Swift,  attacking  Pren- 
dergast's  son,  attacks  Prendergast  himself  :— 

'  What !   thou  the  spawn  of  him  who  shamed  our  isle. 
Traitor,  assassin,  and  informer  vile.' 

Swift's  Works,  xi.  319. 

subject. 


Aetat.  G3.]         A  ScotcJi  scJiooliuaster  s  case.  211 

subject.  He  said,  'There's  no  occasion  for  my  writing.  I'll 
talk  to  you.'  He  was,  however,  at  last  prevailed  on  to  dic- 
tate to  me,  while  I  wrote  as  follows : — 

'  The  charge  is,  that  he  has  used  immoderate  and  cruel  correc- 
tion. Correction,  in  itself,  is  not  cruel ;  children,  being  not  reason- 
able, can  be  governed  only  by  fear.  To  impress  this  fear,  is  there- 
fore one  of  the  first  duties  of  those  who  have  the  care  of  children. 
It  is  the  duty  of  a  parent ;  and  has  never  been  thought  inconsist- 
ent with  parental  tenderness.  It  is  the  duty  of  a  master,  wlio  is  in 
his  highest  exaltation  when  he  is  loco  parentis.  Yet,  as  good  things 
become  evil  by  excess,  correction,  by  being  immoderate,  may  be- 
come cruel.  But  when  is  correction  immoderate  .''  When  it  is  more 
frequent  or  more  severe  than  is  required  ad  monendum  ct  docendum, 
for  reformation  and  instruction.  No  severity  is  cruel  which  obsti- 
nacy makes  necessary ;  for  the  greatest  cruelty  would  be  to  desist, 
and  leave  the  scholar  too  careless  for  instruction,  and  too  much 
hardened  for  reproof.  Locke,  in  his  treatise  of  Education,  men- 
tions a  mother,  with  applause,  who  whipped  an  infant  eight  times 
before  she  had  subdued  it ;  for  had  she  stopped  at  the  seventh  act 
of  correction,  her  daughter,  says  he,  would  have  been  ruined'. 
The  degrees  of  obstinacy  in  young  minds,  are  very  different ;  as 
different  must  be  the  degrees  of  persevering  severity.  A  stubborn 
scholar  must  be  corrected  till  he  is  subdued.  The  discipline  of  a 
school  is  military.  There  must  be  either  unbounded  licence  or 
absolute  authority.  The  master,  who  punishes,  not  only  consults 
the  future  happiness  of  liim  who  is  the  immediate  subject  of  cor- 
rection ;  but  he  propagates  obedience  through  the  whole  school ; 
and  establishes  regularity  by  exemplary  justice.  The  victorious 
obstinacy  of  a  single  boy  would  make  his  future  endeavours  of  ref- 
ormation or  instruction  totally  ineffectual.     Obstinacy,  therefore, 

'  Locke  says : — '  When  once  it  comes  to  be  a  trial  of  skill,  contest 
for  mastery  betwixt  you  and  your  child,  you  must  be  sure  to  carry  it, 
whatever  blows  it  costs,  if  a  nod  or  words  will  not  prevail.'  He  con- 
tinues : — '  A  prudent  and  kind  mother  of  my  acquaintance  was,  on 
such  an  occasion,  forced  to  whip  her  little  daughter,  at  her  first  com- 
ing home  from  nurse,  eight  times  successively  the  same  morning,  be- 
fore she  could  master  her  stubbornness,  and  obtain  a  compliance  in  a 
very  easy  and  indifferent  matter.  ...  As  this  was  the  first  time,  so  I 
think  it  was  the  last,  too,  she  ever  struck  her.'  Locke  on  Education 
(cd.  1 7 10),  p.  96. 

must 


212  A  Scotch  schoolmaster  s  case.         [a.d.  1773. 

must  never  be  victorious.  Yet,  it  is  well  known,  that  there  some- 
times occurs  a  sullen  and  hardy  resolution,  that  laughs  at  all  com- 
mon punishment,  and  bids  defiance  to  all  common  degrees  of  pain. 
Correction  must  be  proportioned  to  occasions.  The  flexible  will 
be  reformed  by  gentle  discipline,  and  the  refractory  must  be  sub- 
dued by  harsher  methods.  The  degrees  of  scholastick,  as  of  mili- 
tary punishment,  no  stated  rules  can  ascertain.  It  must  be  en- 
forced till  it  overpowers  temptation  ;  till  stubbornness  becomes 
flexible,  and  perverseness  regular.  Custom  and  reason  have,  in- 
deed, set  some  bounds  to  scholastick  penalties.  The  schoolmaster 
inflicts  no  capital  punishments ;  nor  enforces  his  edicts  by  either 
death  or  mutilation.  The  civil  law  has  wisely  determined,  that  a 
master  who  strikes  at  a  scholar's  eye  shall  be  considered  as  crim- 
inal. But  punishments,  however  severe,  that  produce  no  lasting 
evil,  may  be  just  and  reasonable,  because  they  may  be  necessary. 
Such  have  been  the  punishments  used  by  the  respondent.  No 
scholar  has  gone  from  him  either  blind  or  lame,  or  with  any  of  his 
limbs  or  powers  injured  or  impaired.  They  were  irregular,  and  he 
punished  them :  they  were  obstinate,  and  he  enforced  his  punish- 
ment. But,  however  provoked,  he  never  exceeded  the  limits  of 
moderation,  for  he  inflicted  nothing  beyond  present  pain ;  and  how 
much  of  that  was  required,  no  man  is  so  little  able  to  determine  as 
those  who  have  determined  against  him  ; — the  parents  of  the  offend- 
ers. It  has  been  said,  that  he  used  unprecedented  and  improper 
instruments  of  correction.  Of  this  accusation  the  meaning  is  not 
very  easy  to  be  found.  No  instrument  of  correction  is  more  proper 
than  another,  but  as  it  is  better  adapted  to  produce  present  pain 
without  lasting  mischief.  Whatever  were  his  instruments,  no  last- 
ing mischief  has  ensued  ;  and  therefore,  however  unusual,  in  hands 
so  cautious  they  were  proper.  It  has  been  objected,  that  the  re- 
spondent admits  the  charge  of  cruelty,  by  producing  no  evidence 
to  confute  it.  Let  it  be  considered,  that  his  scholars  are  either 
dispersed  at  large  in  the  world,  or  continue  to  inhabit  the  place  in 
which  they  were  bred.  Those  who  are  dispersed  cannot  be  found  ; 
those  who  remain  are  the  sons  of  his  persecutors,  and  are  not  likely 
to  support  a  man  to  whom  their  fathers  are  enemies.  If  it  be  sup- 
posed that  the  enmity  of  their  fathers  proves  the  justice  of  the 
charge,  it  must  be  considered  how  often  experience  shews  us,  that 
men  who  are  angry  on  one  ground  will  accuse  on  another ;  with 
how  little  kindness,  in  a  town  of  low  trade,  a  man  who  lives  by 
learning  is  regarded ;  and  how  implicitly,  where  the  inhabitants 
are  not  very  rich,  a  rich  man  is  hearkened  to  and  followed.     In  a 

place 


Aetat.  63.]     Lord  Mansfield  on  school  discipline.        2 1 3 

place  like  Campbelltown,  it  is  easy  for  one  of  the  principal  inhabi- 
tants to  make  a  party.  It  is  easy  for  that  party  to  heat  themselves 
with  imaginary  grievances.  It  is  easy  for  them  to  oppress  a  man 
poorer  than  themselves  ;  and  natural  to  assert  the  dignity  of  riches, 
by  persisting  in  oppression.  The  argument  which  attempts  to 
prove  the  impropriety  of  restoring  him  to  the  school,  by  alledging 
that  he  has  lost  the  confidence  of  the  people,  is  not  the  subject  of 
juridical  consideration ;  for  he  is  to  suffer,  if  he  must  suffer,  not 
for  their  judgement,  but  for  his  own  actions.  It  may  be  convenient 
for  them  to  have  another  master ;  but  it  is  a  convenience  of  their 
own  making.  It  would  be  likewise  convenient  for  him  to  find  an- 
other school ;  but  this  convenience  he  cannot  obtain.  The  ques- 
tion is  not  what  is  now  convenient,  but  what  is  generally  right.  If 
the  people  of  Campbelltown  be  distressed  by  the  restoration  of  the 
respondent,  they  are  distressed  only  by  their  own  fault ;  by  turbu- 
lent passions  and  unreasonable  desires  ;  by  tyranny,  which  law  has 
defeated,  and  by  malice,  which  virtue  has  surmounted.' 

'  This,  Sir,  (said  he,)  you  are  to  turn  in  your  mind,  and 
make  the  best  use  of  it  you  can  in  your  speech.' 

Of  our  friend,  Goldsmith,  he  said,  '  Sir,  he  is  so  much 
afraid  of  being  unnoticed,  that  he  often  talks  merely  lest 
you  should  forget  that  he  is  in  the  company.'  BOSWELL. 
'Yes,  he  stands  forward.'  Johnson,  'True,  Sir;  but  if  a 
man  is  to  stand  forward,  he  should  wish  to  do  it  not  in  an 
aukward  posture,  not  in  rags,  not  so  as  that  he  shall  only  be 
exposed  to  ridicule.'  BosWELL.  '  For  my  part,  I  like  very 
well  to  hear  honest  Goldsmith  talk  away  carelessly,'  JOHN- 
SON. '  Why  yes.  Sir;  but  he  should  not  like  to  hear  himself.' 

On  Tuesday,  April  14,  the  decree  of  the  Court  of  Session 
in  the  schoolmaster's  cause  was  reversed  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  after  a  very  eloquent  speech  by  Lord  Mansfield,  who 
shewed  himself  an  adept  in  school  discipline,  but  I  thought 
was  too  rigorous  towards  my  client '.     On  the  evening  of 

'  Andrew  Crosbie,  arguin<^  for  the  schoolmaster,  had  said  : — '  Sup- 
posing it  true  that  the  respondent  had  been  provoked  to  use  a  Httle 
more  severity  than  he  wished  to  do,  it  might  well  be  justified  on  ac- 
count of  the  ferocious  and  rebellious  behaviour  of  his  scholars,  some 
of  whom  cursed  and  swore  at  him,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  wrestle 
with  him,  in  which  case  he  was  under  a  necessity  of  subduing  them 

the 


2  14         Lord  Mansfield  on  school  discipline,    [a.d.  1773. 

the  next  day  I  supped  with  Dr.  Johnson,  at  the  Crown  and 
Anchor  tavern,  in  the  Strand,  in  company  with  Mr.  Lang- 
ton  and  his  brother-in-law,  Lord  Binning.  I  repeated  a  sen- 
tence of  Lord  Mansfield's  speech,  of  which,  by  the  aid  of  Mr. 
Longlands,  the  solicitor  on  the  other  side,  who  obligingly 
allowed  me  to  compare  his  note  with  my  own,  I  have  a  full 
copy :  '  My  Lords,  severity  is  not  the  way  to  govern  either 
boys  or  men.'  '  Nay,  (said  Johnson,)  it  is  the  way  to  govern 
them.     I  know  not  whether  it  be  the  way  to  moid  them.' 

I  talked  of  the  recent  expulsion  of  six  students  from  the 
University  of  Oxford,  who  were  methodists  and  would  not 
desist  from  publickly  praying  and  exhorting'.     JOHNSON. 

as  he  best  could.'  Scotch  Appeal  Cases,  xvii.  p.  214.  The  judgment 
of  the  House  of  Lords  is  given  in  Paton's  Reports  of  Cases  tipoft  Ap- 
peal from  Scotland,  ii.  277,  as  follows  : — '  A  schoolmaster,  appointed  by 
the  Magistrates  and  Town  Council  of  Cambelton,  without  any  men- 
tion being  made  as  to  whether  his  office  was  for  life  or  at  pleasure : 
Held  that  it  was  a  public  office,  and  that  he  was  liable  to  be  dismissed 
for  a  just  and  reasonable  cause,  and  that  acts  of  cruel  chastisement 
of  the  boys  were  a  justifiable  cause  for  his  dismissal ;  reversing  the 
judgment  of  the  Court  of  Session.  .  .  .  The  proof  led  before  his  dis- 
mission went  to  shew  that  scarce  a  day  passed  without  some  of  the 
scholars  coming  home  with  their  heads  cut,  and  their  bodies  discol- 
oured. He  beat  his  pupils  with  wooden  squares,  and  sometimes  with 
his  fists,  and  used  his  feet  by  kicking  them,  and  dragged  them  by  the 
hair  of  the  head.  He  had  also  entered  into  the  trade  of  cattle  graz- 
ing and  farming — dealt  in  black  cattle — in  the  shipping  business — and 
in  herring  fishing.' 

•  These  six  Methodists  were  in  1768  expelled  St.  Edmund's  Hall, 
by  the  Vice -Chancellor,  acting  as  'visitor.'  Nominally  they  were 
expelled  for  their  ignorance ;  in  reality  for  their  active  Methodism. 
That  they  were  '  mighty  ignorant  fellows  '  was  shown,  but  ignorance 
was  tolerated  at  Oxford.  One  of  their  number  confessed  his  igno- 
rance, and  declined  all  examination.  But  '  as  he  was  represented  to 
be  a  man  of  fortune,  and  declared  that  he  was  not  designed  for  holy 
orders,  the  Vice-Chancellor  did  not  think  fit  to  remove  him  for  this 
reason  only,  though  he  was  supposed  to  be  one  of  "  the  righteous 
over-much."'  Dr.fohnson:  His  Friends  and  his  Critics,  pp.  51-57. 
Horace  Walpole,  Whig  though  he  was,  thought  as  Johnson.  '  Ox- 
ford,' he  wrote  {Letters,  v.  97), '  has  begun  with  these  rascals,  and  I 
hope  Cambridge  will  wake.' 

'Sir, 


Aetat. 63.]  ''In  viiio  Veritas^.  215 

*  Sir,  that  expulsion  was  extremely  just  and  proper'.  What 
have  they  to  do  at  an  University  who  are  not  willing  to  be 
taught,  but  will  presume  to  teach?  Where  is  religion  to  be 
learnt  but  at  an  University?  Sir,  they  were  examined,  and 
found  to  be  mighty  ignorant  fellows.'  BOSWELL.  '  But,  was 
it  not  hard.  Sir,  to  expel  them,  for  I  am  told  they  were  good 
beings?'  JOHNSON.  '  I  believe  they  might  be  good  beings; 
but  they  were  not  fit  to  be  in  the  University  of  Oxford  ^  A 
cow  is  a  very  good  animal  in  the  field ;  but  we  turn  her  out 
of  a  garden.'  Lord  Elibank  used  to  repeat  this  as  an  illus- 
tration uncommonly  happy. 

Desirous  of  calling  Johnson  forth  to  talk,  and  exercise  his 
wit,  though  I  should  myself  be  the  object  of  it,  I  resolutely 
ventured  to  undertake  the  defence  of  convivial  indulgence 
in  wine,  though  he  was  not  to-night  in  the  most  genial  hu- 
mour ^  After  urging  the  common  plausible  topicks,  I  at  last 
had  recourse  to  the  maxim,  in  vino  Veritas^  a  man  who  is 
well  warmed  with  wine  will  speak  truth  \    JOHNSON.  '  Why, 

'  Much  such  an  expulsion  as  this  Johnson  had  justified  in  his  Life 
of  Cheynel  {^Works,  vi.  415).  'A  temper  of  this  kind,'  he  wrote,  'is 
generally  inconvenient  and  ofifensive  in  any  society,  but  in  a  place  of 
education  is  least  to  be  tolerated.  .  .  .  He  may  be  justly  driven  from 
a  society,  by  which  he  thinks  himself  too  wise  to  be  governed,  and  in 
which  he  is  too  young  to  teach,  and  too  opinionative  to  learn.' 

"^  Johnson  wrote  far  otherwise  of  the  indulgence  shown  to  Edmund 
Smith,  the  poet.  '  The  indecency  and  licentiousness  of  his  behaviour 
drew  upon  him,  Dec.  24,  1694,  while  he  was  yet  only  bachelor,  a  pub- 
lick  admonition,  entered  upon  record,  in  order  to  his  expulsion.  Of 
this  reproof  the  effect  is  not  known.  He  was  probably  less  notori- 
ous. At  Oxford,  as  we  all  know,  much  will  be  forgiven  to  literary 
merit.  ...  Of  his  lampoon  upon  Dean  Aldrich,  [Smith  was  a  Christ- 
Church  man],  I  once  heard  a  single  line  too  gross  to  be  repeated. 
But  he  was  still  a  genius  and  a  scholar,  and  Oxford  was  unwilling  to 
lose  him  ;  he  was  endured  with  all  his  pranks  and  his  vices  two  years 
longer;  but  on  Dec.  20,  1705,  at  the  instance  of  all  the  Canons,  the 
sentence  declared  five  years  before  was  put  in  execution.  The  exe- 
cution was,  I  believe,  silent  and  tender.'      Works,  vii.  373-4. 

^  Sec  post,  p.  222,  note  i. 

■•  '  Our  bottle-conversation,'  wrote  Addison, '  is  infected  with  party- 
lying.'     The  Spectator,  No.  507. 

Sir, 


2 1 6  Education  of  the  people.  [a.d.  1772. 

Sir,  that  may  be  an  argument  for  drinking,  if  you  suppose 
men  in  general  to  be  liars.  But,  Sir,  I  would  not  keep  com- 
pany with  a  fellow,  who  lyes  as  long  as  he  is  sober,  and 
whom  you  must  make  drunk  before  you  can  get  a  word  of 
truth  out  of  him  \' 

Mr.  Langton  told  us  he  was  about  to  establish  a  school 
upon  his  estate,  but  it  had  been  suggested  to  him,  that  it 
might  have  a  tendency  to  make  the  people  less  industrious. 
Johnson.  '  No,  Sir.  While  learning  to  read  and  write  is  a 
distinction,  the  few  who  have  that  distinction  may  be  the 
less  inclined  to  work ;  but  when  every  body  learns  to  read 
and  write,  it  is  no  longer  a  distinction '.  A  man  who  has  a 
laced  waistcoat  is  too  fine  a  man  to  work  ;  but  if  every  body 
had  laced  waistcoats,  we  should  have  people  working  in  laced 
waistcoats.  There  are  no  people  whatever  more  industrious, 
none  who  work  more,  than  our  manufacturers^;  yet  they 
have  all  learnt  to  read  and  write.  Sir,  you  must  not  neglect 
doing  a  thing  immediately  good,  from  fear  of  remote  evil; 
— from  fear  of  its  being  abused  \     A  man  who  has  candles 

'  Mrs.  Piozzi,  in  her  Anecdotes,  p.  261,  has  given  an  erroneous  ac- 
count of  this  incident,  as  of  many  others.  She  pretends  to  relate  it 
from  recollection,  as  if  she  herself  had  been  present;  when  the  fact  is 
that  it  was  communicated  to  her  by  me.  She  has  represented  it  as  a 
personality,  and  the  true  point  has  escaped  her.    Boswell.    She  tells 

the  story  against  Boswell.     '  I  fancy  Mr.  B has  not  forgotten,' 

she  writes. 

-  See /^^/,  April  11,  1776. 

^  Johnson,  in  his  Dictionary,  defines  maiiufacturer  as  a  workman  ; 
an  artificer. 

■*  Johnson  had  no  fear  of  popular  education.  In  his  attack  on 
Jenyns's  Enquiry  {ante,  i.  365),  he  wrote  (  Works,  vi.  56)  :— '  Though  it 
should  be  granted  that  those  who  are  born  to  poverty  and  drudgery 
should  not  be  deprived  by  an  improper  education  of  the  opiate  of  igno- 
rance,  even  this  concession  will  not  be  of  much  use  to  direct  our  prac- 
tice, unless  it  be  determined,  who  are  those  that  are  born  to  poverty. 
To  entail  irreversible  poverty  upon  generation  after  generation,  only 
because  the  ancestor  happened  to  be  poor,  is  in  itself  cruel,  if  not 
unjust.  ...  I  am  always  afraid  of  determining  on  the  side  of  envy  or 
cruelty.  The  privileges  of  education  may  sometimes  be  improperly 
bestowed,  but  I  shall  always  fear  to  withhold  them,  lest  I  should  be 

may 


Aetat.  63.]  Tacitus.  2 1 7 

maj/  sit  up  too  late,  which  he  would  not  do  if  he  had  not 
candles ;  but  nobody  will  deny  that  the  art  of  making 
candles,  by  which  light  is  continued  to  us  beyond  the  time 
that  the  sun  gives  us  light,  is  a  valuable  art,  and  ought  to 
be  preserved.'  BOSWELL.  '  But,  Sir,  would  it  not  be  better 
to  follow  Nature ;  and  go  to  bed  and  rise  just  as  nature 
gives  us  light  or  with-holds  it?'  JOHNSON.  'No,  Sir;  for 
then  we  should  have  no  kind  of  equality  in  the  partition 
of  our  time  between  sleeping  and  waking.  It  would  be 
very  different  in  different  seasons  and  in  different  places. 
In  some  of  the  northern  parts  of  Scotland  how  little  light 
is  there  in  the  depth  of  winter !' 

We  talked  of  Tacitus',  and  I  hazarded  an  opinion,  that 
with  all  his  merit  for  penetration,  shrewdness  of  judgement, 
and  terseness  of  expression,  he  was  too  compact,  too  much 
broken  into  hints,  as  it  were,  and  therefore  too  difficult  to  be 
understood.  To  my  great  satisfaction,  Dr.  Johnson  sanc- 
tioned this  opinion.  '  Tacitus,  Sir,  seems  to  me  rather  to 
have  made  notes  for  an  historical  work,  than  to  have  writ- 
ten a  history  ^' 

At  this  time  it  appears  from  his  Prayers  and  Meditations, 
that  he  had  been  more  than  commonly  diligent  in  religious 
duties,  particularly  in  reading  the  Holy  Scriptures.  It  was 
Passion  Week,  that  solemn  season  which  the  Christian  world 
has  appropriated  to  the  commemoration  of  the  mysteries  of 
our  redemption,  and  during  which,  whatever  embers  of  re- 
ligion are  in  our  breasts,  will  be  kindled  into  pious  warmth. 

yielding  to  the  suggestions  of  pride,  while  I  persuade  myself  that  I 
am  following  the  maxims  of  policy.'  In  The  Idler,  No.  26,  he  attacked 
those  who  '  hold  it  little  less  than  criminal  to  teach  poor  girls  to  read 
and  write,'  and  who  say  that '  they  who  are  born  to  poverty  are  born 
to  ignorance,  and  will  work  the  harder  the  less  they  know.' 

'  Tacitus's  Agricola,  ch.  xii.,  was  no  doubt  quoted  in  reference  to 
the  shortness  of  the  northern  winter  day. 

^  It  is  remarkable,  that  Lord  Monboddo,  whom,  on  account  of  his 
resembling  Ur.  Johnson  in  some  particulars,  Footc  called  an  Elzevir 
edition  of  him,  has,  by  coincidence,  made*  the  very  same  remark.  Ori- 
gin and  Progress  0/  Language,  vo\.  iii.  2nd  ed.  p.  219.  Boswell.  See 
Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  21,  note. 

I  paid 


2i8  Johnson  reads  the  Bible  through,      [a.d.  1773. 

I  paid  him  short  visits  both  on  Friday  and  Saturday,  and 
seeing  his  large  foHo  Greek  Testament  before  him,  beheld 
him  with  a  reverential  awe,  and  would  not  intrude  upon  his 
time'.  While  he  was  thus  employed  to  such  good  purpose, 
and  while  his  friends  in  their  intercourse  with  him  con- 
stantly found  a  vigorous  intellect  and  a  lively  imagination, 
it  is  melancholy  to  read  in  his  private  register, '  My  mind 
is  unsettled  and  my  memory  confused.  I  have  of  late 
turned  my  thoughts  with  a  very  useless  earnestness  upon 
past  incidents.  I  have  yet  got  no  command  over  my 
thoughts;  an  unpleasing  incident  is  almost  certain  to  hinder 
my  rest^'  What  philosophick  heroism  was  it  in  him  to 
appear  with  such  manly  fortitude  to  the  world,  while  he 
was  inwardly  so  distressed  !  We  may  surely  believe  that 
the  mysterious  principle  of  being  '  made  perfect  through  suf- 
fering^' was  to  be  strongly  exemplified  in  him. 

On  Sunday,  April  19,  being  Easter-day,  General  Paoli  and 
I  paid  him  a  visit  before  dinner.  We  talked  of  the  notion 
that  blind  persons  can  distinguish  colours  by  the  touch, 
Johnson  said,  that  Professor  Sanderson^  mentions  his  having 

'  On  Saturday  night  Johnson  recorded  : — '  I  resolved  last  Easter  to 
read  within  the  year  the  whole  Bible,  a  very  great  part  of  which  1 
had  never  looked  upon.  I  read  the  Greek  Testament  without  con- 
struing, and  this  day  concluded  the  Apocalypse.  .  .  .  Easter  Day. 
After  twelve  at  night.  The  day  is  now  begun  on  which  I  hope  to 
begin  a  new  course,  wa-rrep  dc/)'  vaTrkrjyyav,  [as  if  from  the  starting- 
place.] 

My  hopes  are  from  this  time — 
To  rise  early. 
To  waste  less  time, 
To  appropriate  something  to  charity.' 

A  week  later  he  recorded  : — '  It  is  a  comfort  to  me  that  at  last,  in  my 
sixty-third  year,  I  have  attained  to  know  even  thus  hastily,  confused- 
ly, and  imperfectly,  what  my  Bible  contains.  I  have  never  yet  read 
the  Apocrypha.  I  have  sometimes  looked  into  the  Maccabees,  and 
read  a  chapter  containing  the  question.  Which  is  the  strongest?  I 
think,  in  Esdras  '  [i  Esdras,  ch.  iii.  v.  lo].     Pr.  and  Med.  pp.  1 12-1 18. 

"^  Pr.  and  Med.  p.  1 1 1 .     Boswell. 

^  '  Perfect  through  sufferings.'     Hebrcivs,  ii.  10. 

*  '  I  was  alwa3^s  so  incapable  of  learning  mathematics,'  wrote  Hor- 

attempted 


Aetat.  63.]  Taste  ill  the  arts.  2 1 9 

attempted  to  do  it,  but  that  he  found  he  was  aiming  at  an 
impossibility ;  that  to  be  sure  a  difference  in  the  surface 
makes  the  difference  of  colours ;  but  that  difference  is  so 
fine,  that  it  is  not  sensible  to  the  touch.  The  General  men- 
tioned jugglers  and  fraudulent  gamesters,  who  could  know 
cards  by  the  touch.  Dr.  Johnson  said, '  the  cards  used  by 
such  persons  must  be  less  polished  than  ours  commonly 
are.' 

We  talked  of  sounds.  The  General  said,  there  was  no 
beauty  in  a  simple  sound,  but  only  in  an  harmonious  com- 
position of  sounds.  I  presumed  to  differ  from  this  opinion, 
and  mentioned  the  soft  and  sweet  sound  of  a  fine  woman's 
voice.  Johnson.  '  No,  Sir,  if  a  serpent  or  a  toad  uttered  it, 
you  would  think  it  ugly.'  BOSWELL,  '  So  you  would  think, 
Sir,  were  a  beautiful  tune  to  be  uttered  by  one  of  those 
animals.'  JOHNSON.  '  No,  Sir,  it  would  be  admired.  We 
have  seen  fine  fiddlers  whom  we  liked  as  little  as  toads.' 
(laughing.) 

Talking  on  the  subject  of  taste  in  the  arts,  he  said,  that 
difference  of  taste  was,  in  truth,  difference  of  skill '.  BOS- 
WELL.  '  But,  Sir,  is  there  not  a  quality  called  taste  ^  which 

ace  Walpole  (Letters,  ix.  467), '  that  I  could  not  even  get  by  heart  the 
multiplication  table,  as  blind  Professor  Sanderson  honestly  told  me, 
above  three -score  years  ago,  when  I  went  to  his  lectures  at  Cam- 
bridge. After  the  first  fortnight  he  said  to  me,  "  Young  man,  it 
would  be  cheating  you  to  t^ke  your  money ;  for  you  never  can  learn 
what  I  am  trying  to  teach  you."  I  was  exceedingly  mortified,  and 
cried  ;  for,  being  a  Prime  Minister's  son,  I  had  firmly  believed  all  the 
flattery  with  which  I  had  been  assured  that  my  parts  were  capable  of 
anything.' 

'  Reynolds  said: — 'Out  of  the  great  number  of  critics  in  this  me- 
tropolis who  all  pretend  to  knowledge  in  pictures,  the  greater  part 
must  be  mere  pretenders  only.  Taste  does  not  come  by  chance  ;  it  is 
a  long  and  laborious  task  to  acquire  it.'     Northcote's  Reynolds,  i.  264. 

"  'Jemmy  Boswell,'  wrote  John  Scott  (afterwards  Lord  Eldon), 
'called  upon  me,  desiring  to  know  what  would  be  my  definition  of 
taste.  I  told  him  I  must  decline  defining  it,  because  I  knew  he  would 
publish  it.  He  continued  his  importunities  in  frequent  calls,  and  in 
one  complained  mucii  that  I  would  not  give  him  it,  as  he  had  that 
morning  got  Henry  Dundas's,  Sir  A.  Macdonald's,  and  J.  Anstruther's 

consists 


2  20         Jo/msons  rejiectioii  against  Garrick.    [a. d.  1772. 

consists  merely  in  perception  or  in  liking?  For  instance,  we 
find  people  differ  much  as  to  what  is  the  best  style  of  Eng- 
lish composition.  Some  think  Swift's  the  best ;  others  pre- 
fer a  fuller  and  grander  way  of  writing.'  JOHNSON.  '  Sir, 
you  must  first  define  what  you  mean  by  style,  before  you 
can  judge  who  has  a  good  taste  in  style,  and  who  has  a  bad. 
The  two  classes  of  persons  whom  you  have  mentioned  don't 
differ  as  to  good  and  bad.  They  both  agree  that  Swift  has 
a  good  neat  style '  ;  but  one  loves  a  neat  style,  another 
loves  a  style  of  more  splendour.  In  like  manner,  one  loves 
a  plain  coat,  another  loves  a  laced  coat ;  but  neither  will 
deny  that  each  is  good  in  its  kind.' 

While  I  remained  in  London  this  spring,  I  was  with  him 
at  several  other  times,  both  by  himself  and  in  company.  I 
dined  with  him  one  day  at  the  Crown  and  Anchor  tavern, 
in  the  Strand,  with  Lord  Elibank,  Mr.  Langton,  and  Dr. 
Vansittart  of  Oxford.  Without  specifying  each  particular 
day,  I  have  preserved  the  following  memorable  things. 

I  regretted  the  reflection  in  his  Preface  to  Shakspeare 
against  Garrick,  to  whom  we  cannot  but  apply  the  follow- 
ing passage :  '  I  collated  such  copies  as  I  could  procure,  and 

definitions.  "  Well,  then,"  I  said,  "  Boswell,  we  must  have  an  end  of 
this.  Taste,  according  to  my  definition,  is  the  judgment  which  Dun- 
das,  Macdonald,  Anstruther,  and  you  manifested  when  you  determined 
to  quit  Scotland  and  to  come  into  the  south.  You  may  publish  this  if 
you  please."  '  Twiss's  ^A/fw,  i.  303.  See /ci'/,  April  10,  1778,  note  for 
Lord  Eldon. 

'  Johnson  ( Works,  viii.  220)  says  that  '  Swift's  delight  was  in  sim- 
plicity. That  he  has  in  his  works  no  metaphor,  as  has  been  said,  is 
not  true  ;  but  his  few  metaphors  seem  to  be  received  rather  by  neces- 
sity than  choice.  He  studied  purity. . . .  His  style  was  well  suited  to 
his  thoughts. . . .  He  pays  no  court  to  the  passions ;  he  excites  nei- 
ther surprise  nor  admiration  ;  he  always  understands  himself,  and  his 
reader  always  understands  him  ;  the  peruser  of  Swift  wants  little  pre- 
vious knowledge  ;  it  will  be  sufficient  that  he  is  acquainted  with  com- 
mon words  and  common  things ; . . .  [his  style]  instructs,  but  it  does 
not  persuade.'  Hume  describes  Swift's  style  as  one  which  he  '  can 
approve,  but  surely  can  never  admire.  It  has  no  harmony,  no  elo- 
quence, no  ornament,  and  not  much  correctness,  whatever  the  Eng- 
lish may  imagine.'     }.  H.  Burton's  Hume,  ii.  413. 

wished 


Aetat.  63.]   Jokusons  reflection  against  Garrick.  221 

wished  for  more,  but  have  not  found  the  collectors  of  these 
rarities  very  communicative '.'  I  told  him,  that  Garrick  had 
complained  to  me  of  it,  and  had  vindicated  himself  by  as- 
suring me,  that  Johnson  was  made  welcome  to  the  full  use 
of  his  collection,  and  that  he  left  the  key  of  it  with  a  servant, 
with  orders  to  have  a  fire  and  every  convenience  for  him. 
I  found  Johnson's  notion  was,  that  Garrick  wanted  to  be 
courted  for  them,  and  that,  on  the  contrary,  Garrick  should 
have  courted  him,  and  sent  him  the  plays  of  his  own  ac- 
cord. But,  indeed,  considering  the  slovenly  and  careless 
manner  in  which  books  were  treated  by  Johnson,  it  could 
not  be  expected  that  scarce  and  valuable  editions  should 
have  been  lent  to  him". 

'  Johnson's  Works,  v.  146. 

"^  Dr.  Warton  wrote  on  Jan.  22,  1766  : — '  Garrick  is  entirely  off  from 
Johnson,  and  cannot,  he  says,  forgive  him  his  insinuating  tliat  he  with- 
held his  old  editions,  which  ahvays  were  open  to  him ;  nor,  I  suppose, 
his  never  mentioning  him  in  all  his  works.'  Wooll's  Warton,  p.  313. 
Beauclerk  wrote  to  Lord  Charlemont  in  1773: — 'If  you  do  not  come 
here,  I  will  bring  all  the  club  over  to  Ireland  to  live  with  you,  and  that 
will  drive  you  here  m  your  own  defence.  Johnson  shall  spoil  yoiir 
books,  Goldsmith  pull  your  flowers,  and  Boswell  talk  to  you  ;  stay  then 
if  you  can.'  Charlemont's  Life,  i.  347.  Yet  Garrick  had  lent  Johnson 
some  books,  for  Johnson  wrote  to  him  on  Oct.  10,  1766: — 'I  return 
you  thanks  for  the  present  of  the  Dictionary,  and  will  take  care  to 
return  you  [qu.  your]  other  books.'  Garrick  Corres.  i.  245.  Steevens, 
who  had  edited  Johnson's  Shakespeare,  wrote  to  Garrick  : — '  I  have 
taken  the  liberty  to  introduce  your  name,  because  /  have  fotind  no 
reason  to  say  that  the  possessors  of  the  old  quartos  were  not  suffi- 
ciently communicative.'  lb.  p.  501.  Mme.  D'Arblay  describes  how 
'  Garrick,  giving  a  thundering  stamp  on  some  mark  on  the  carpet  that 
struck  his  eye — not  with  passion  or  displeasure,  but  merely  as  if  from 
singularity — took  oft"  Dr.  Johnson's  voice  in  a  short  dialogue  with  him- 
self that  had  passed  the  preceding  week.  "  David !  Will  you  lend 
me  your  Petrarca  ?"  "Y-e-s,  Sir!"  "  David  !  you  sigh  ?"  "Sir — you 
shall  have  it  certainly."  "  Accordingly,"  Mr.  Garrick  continued,  "  the 
book,  stupendously  bound,  I  sent  to  him  that  very  evening.  But 
scarcely  had  he  taken  it  in  his  hands,  when,  as  Boswell  tells  mc,  he 
poured  forth  a  Greek  ejaculation  and  a  couplet  or  two  from  Horace, 
and  then  in  one  of  those  fits  of  enthusiasm  which  always  seem  to 
require  that  he  should  spread  his  arms  aloft,  he  suddenly  pounces  my 

A  eentleman 


2  22  Argiuncnts  for  cirinkmg.  [a.d.  1773. 

A  gentleman'  having  to  some  of  the  usual  arguments  for 
drinking  added  this :  '  You  know,  Sir,  drinking  drives  away 
care,  and  makes  us  forget  whatever  is  disagreeable.  Would 
not  you  allow  a  man  to  drink  for  that  reason?'  JOHNSON. 
'Yes,  Sir,  if  he  sat  ncyX you.' 

I  expressed  a  liking  for  Mr.  Francis  Osborne's  works,  and 
asked  him  what  he  thought  of  that  writer.  He  answered, 
'  A  conceited  fellow.  Were  a  man  to  write  so  now,  the  boys 
would  throw  stones  at  him.'  He,  however,  did  not  alter  my 
opinion  of  a  favourite  authour,  to  whom  I  was  first  directed 
by  his  being  quoted  in  The  Spectator'',  and  in  whom  I  have 
found  much  shrewd  and  lively  sense,  expressed  indeed  in 
a  style  somewhat  quaint,  which,  however,  I  do  not  dislike. 
His  book  has  an  air  of  originality.  We  figure  to  ourselves 
an  ancient  gentleman  talking  to  us, 

When  one  of  his  friends  endeavoured  to  maintain  that  a 


poor  Pctrarca  over  his  head  upon  the  floor.  And  then,  standing  for 
several  minutes  lost  in  abstraction,  he  forgot  probably  that  he  had 
ever  seen  it." '  Dr.  Burney's  Memoirs,  i.  352.  See  post,  under  Aug. 
12,  1784. 

'  The  gentleman  most  likely  is  Boswell  {ante,  ii.  15,  note  3).  I  sus- 
pect that  this  anecdote  belongs  to  ante,  April  14,  when  'Johnson  was 
not  in  the  most  genial  humour.'  Boswell,  while  showing  that  Mrs. 
Piozzi  misrepresented  an  incident  of  that  evening  'as  a  personality,' 
would  be  afraid  of  weakening  his  case  by  letting  it  be  seen  that  John- 
son on  that  occasion  was  very  personal.  Since  writing  this  I  have 
noticed  that  Dr.  T.  Campbell  records  in  his  Diary,  p.  53,  that  on  April 
I,  1775,  he  was  dining  at  Mr.  Thrale's  with  Boswell,  when  many  of 
Johnson's  '  bon-mots  were  retailed.  Boswell  arguing  in  favour  of  a 
cheerful  glass,  adduced  the  maxim  in  vino  Veritas.  "  Well,"  says 
Johnson,  "  and  what  then,  unless  a  man  has  lived  a  lie."  Boswell  then 
urged  that  it  made  a  man  forget  all  his  cares.  "  That  to  be  sure," 
says  Johnson,  "  might  be  of  use,  if  a  man  sat  by  such  a  person  as 
you."'  Campbell's  account  confirms  what  Boswell  asserts  (ante,  ii. 
216)  that  Mrs.  Piozzi  had  the  anecdote  from  him. 

"  No.  150.  The  quotation  is  from  Francis  Osborne's  A dr'iee  to  a 
Son.  Swift,  in  The  Tatter,  No.  230,  ranks  Osborne  with  some  other 
authors,  who  '  being  men  of  the  Court,  and  affecting  the  phrases  then 
in  fashion,  are  often  either  not  to  be  understood,  or  appear  perfectly 
ridiculous.' 

country 


Aetat.  03.]  The  story  of  a  flea.  223 

country  gentleman  might  contrive  to  pass  his  hfe  very  agree- 
ably, '  Sir,  (said  he,)  you  cannot  give  me  an  instance  of  any 
man  who  is  permitted  to  lay  out  his  own  time,  contriving 
not  to  have  tedious  hours'.'  This  observation,  however,  is 
equally  applicable  to  gentlemen  who  live  in  cities,  and  are 
of  no  profession. 

He  said,  '  there  is  no  permanent  national  character;  it 
varies  according  to  circumstances.  Alexander  the  Great 
swept  India :  now  the  Turks  sweep  Greece.' 

A  learned  gentleman  who  in  the  course  of  conversation 
w'ished  to  inform  us  of  this  simple  fact,  that  the  Counsel 
upon  the  circuit  at  Shrewsbury  were  much  bitten  by  fleas, 
took,  I  suppose,  seven  or  eight  minutes  in  relating  it  circum- 
stantially. He  in  a  plenitude  of  phrase  told  us,  that  large 
bales  of  woollen  cloth  were  lodged  in  the  town  -  hall ; — 
that  by  reason  of  this,  fleas  nestled  there  in  prodigious 
numbers ;  that  the  lodgings  of  the  counsel  were  near  to  the 
town-hall ; — and  that  those  little  animals  moved  from  place 
to  place  with  wonderful  agility.  Johnson  sat  in  great  im- 
patience till  the  gentleman  had  finished  his  tedious  narra- 
tive, and  then  burst  out,  (playfully  however,)  'It  is  a  pity. 
Sir,  that  you  have  not  seen  a  lion ;  for  a  flea  has  taken  you 
such  a  time,  that  a  lion  must  have  served  you  a  twelve- 
month \' 

He  would  not  allow  Scotland  to  derive  any  credit  from 
Lord  Mansfield  ;  for  he  was  educated  in  England.  '  Much, 
(said  he,)  may  be  made  of  a  Scotchman,  if  he  be  caught 
young  ^' 

'  Sec  post,  May  13,  1778,  and  June  30,  1784. 

^  Mrs.  Piozzi,  to  whom  I  told  this  anecdote,  has  related  it,  as  if  the 
gentleman  had  given  '  the  tiatural  history  of  the  mouse'  Aiiec.  p.  191. 
BOSWELL.  The  gentleman  was  very  likely  Dr.  Vansittart,  who  is  men- 
tioned just  before.  (See  attie,\,  402,  note  3.)  Mrs.  Thrale,  in  1773, 
wrote  to  Johnson  of '  the  man  that  saw  the  mouse.'  Piozzi  Letters,  i. 
186.  From  Johnson's  answer  {ib.  p.  197)  it  seems  that  she  meant  Van- 
sittart. Mr.  Croker  says  '  this  proves  that  Johnson  himself  sanctioned 
Mrs.  Piozzi's  version  of  the  story — mouse  versusy?(v;.'  Mr.  Croker  has 
an  odd  notion  of  what  constitutes  both  a  proof  and  a  sanction. 

^  Lord  Shelburne  says  that  '  William  Murray  [Lord  Manslield]  was 

Talking 


2  24  The  manuscripts  of  authours.        [a. d.  1772. 

Talking  of  a  modern  historian  and  a  modern  moralist', 
he  said, '  There  is  more  thought  in  the  moralist  than  in  the 
historian.  There  is  but  a  shallow  stream  of  thought  in  his- 
tory.' BOSWELL.  '  But  surely.  Sir,  an  historian  has  reflec- 
tion.' Johnson.  'Why  yes.  Sir;  and  so  has  a  cat  when  she 
catches  a  mouse  for  her  kitten.  But  she  cannot  write  like 
*******  ;  neither  can  *********.' 

He  said, '  I  am  very  unwilling  to  read  the  manuscripts  of 
authours,  and  give  them  my  opinion  ^  If  the  authours  who 
apply  to  me  have  money  I  bid  them  boldly  print  without 
a  name ;  if  they  have  written  in  order  to  get  money,  I  tell 
them  to  go  to  the  booksellers,  and  make  the  best  bargain 
they  can.'  BoswELL.  '  But,  Sir,  if  a  bookseller  should  bring 
you  a  manuscript  to  look  at  ?'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir,  I 
would  desire  the  bookseller  to  take  it  away.' 

I  mentioned  a  friend  of  mine  who  had  resided  long  in 
Spain,  and  was  unwilling  to  return  to  Britain.  JOHNSON. 
'  Sir,  he  is  attached  to  some  woman.'  BoswELL.  '  I  rather 
believe.  Sir,  it  is  the  fine  climate  which  keeps  him  there.' 
Johnson.  'Nay,  Sir,  how  can  you  talk  so?  What  is  cli- 
mate to  happiness  ^  ?  Place  me  in  the  heart  of  Asia,  should 
I  not  be  exiled  ?  What  proportion  does  climate  bear  to  the 
complex  system  of  human  life  ?  You  may  advise  me  to  go 
to  live  at  Bologna  to  eat  sausages.  The  sausages  there  are 
the  best  in  the  world ;  they  lose  much  by  being  carried.' 

On  Saturday,  May  9,  Mr.  Dempster^  and  I  had  agreed  to 

sixteen  years  of  age  when  he  came  out  of  Scotland,  and  spoke  such 
broad  Scotch  that  he  stands  entered  in  the  University  books  at  Ox- 
ford as  born  at  Bath,  the  Vice-Chancellor  mistaking  Bath  for  Perth! 
Fitzmaurice's  Shelburiie,  i.  87. 

'  The  asterisks  seem  to  show  that  Beattie  and  Robertson  are  meant. 
This  is  rendered  more  probable  from  the  fact  that  the  last  paragraph 
is  about  Scotchmen. 

"  See  ante,  ii.  57. 

'  Boswell's  friend  was  very  likely  his  brother  David,  who  had  long 
resided  in  Valencia.  In  that  case,  Johnson  came  round  to  Boswell's 
opinion,  for  he  wrote,  '  he  will  find  Scotland  but  a  sorry  place  after 
twelve  years'  residence  in  a  happier  climate ;'  post,  April  29,  1780. 

*  See  atite,  i.  513,  note  2. 

dine 


Aetat.  63.]  '  Vzcious  intromission'  225 

dine  by  ourselves  at  the  British  Coffee-house.  Johnson,  on 
whom  I  happened  to  call  in  the  morning,  said  he  would  join 
us,  which  he  did,  and  we  spent  a  very  agreeable  day,  though 
I  recollect  but  little  of  what  passed. 

He  said, '  Walpole  was  a  minister  given  by  the  King  to 
the  people :  Pitt  was  a  minister  given  by  the  people  to  the 
King, — as  an  adjunct.' 

'  The  misfortune  of  Goldsmith  in  conversation  is  this :  he 
goes  on  without  knowing  how  he  is  to  get  off.  His  genius 
is  great,  but  his  knowledge  is  small.  As  they  say  of  a  gen- 
erous man,  it  is  a  pity  he  is  not  rich,  we  may  say  of  Gold- 
smith, it  is  a  pity  he  is  not  knowing.  He  would  not  keep 
his  knowledge  to  himself.' 

Before  leaving  London  this  year,  I  consulted  him  upon  a 
question  purely  of  Scotch  law.  It  was  held  of  old,  and  con- 
tinued for  a  long  period,  to  be  an  established  principle  in 
that  law,  that  whoever  intermeddled  with  the  effects  of  a 
person  deceased,  without  the  interposition  of  legal  authority 
to  guard  against  embezzlement,  should  be  subjected  to  pay 
all  the  debts  of  the  deceased,  as  having  been  guilty  of  what 
was  technically  called  vicious  intromission.  The  Court  of 
Session  had  gradually  relaxed  the  strictness  of  this  princi- 
ple, where  the  interference  proved  had  been  inconsiderable. 
In  a  case '  which  came  before  that  Court  the  preceding  win- 
ter, I  had  laboured  to  persuade  the  Judges  to  return  to  the 
ancient  law.  It  was  my  own  sincere  opinion,  that  they  ought 
to  adhere  to  it ;  but  I  had  exhausted  all  my  powers  of  rea- 
soning in  vain.  Johnson  thought  as  I  did  ;  and  in  order  to 
assist  me  in  my  application  to  the  Court  for  a  revision  and 
alteration  of  the  judgement,  he  dictated  to  me  the  following 
argument : — 

'  This,  we  are  told,  is  a  law  which  has  its  force  only  from  the  long 
practice  of  the  Court :  and  may,  therefore,  be  suspended  or  modi- 
fied as  the  Court  shall  think  proper. 

'  Concerning  the  power  of  the  Court  to  make  or  to  suspend 
a  law,  we  have  no  intention  to  inquire.     It  is  sufficient  for  our 

'  Wilson  against  Smith  and  Armour.     Boswell. 
II.-15 


226  ''Vicious  iiitr omission^  [a.d.  1772. 

purpose  that  every  just  law  is  dictated  by  reason  ;  and  that  the  prac- 
tice of  every  legal  Court  is  regulated  by  equity.  It  is  the  quality 
of  reason  to  be  invariable  and  constant ;  and  of  equity,  to  give  to 
one  man  what,  in  the  same  case,  is  given  to  another.  The  advan- 
tage which  humanity  derives  from  law  is  this  :  that  the  law  gives 
every  man  a  rule  of  action,  and  prescribes  a  mode  of  conduct  which 
shall  entitle  him  to  the  support  and  protection  of  society.  That 
the  law  may  be  a  rule  of  action,  it  is  necessary  that  it  be  known ; 
it  is  necessary  that  it  be  permanent  and  stable.  The  law  is  the 
measure  of  civil  right ;  but  if  the  measure  be  changeable,  the  ex- 
tent of  the  thing  measured  never  can  be  settled. 

'To  permit  a  law  to  be  modified  at-  discretion,  is  to  leave  the 
community  without  law.  It  is  to  withdraw  the  direction  of  that 
publick  wisdom,  by  which  the  deficiencies  of  private  understand- 
ing are  to  be  supplied.  It  is  to  suffer  the  rash  and  ignorant  to  act 
at  discretion,  and  then  to  depend  for  the  legality  of  that  action  on 
the  sentence  of  the  Judge.  He  that  is  thus  governed,  lives  not  by 
law,  but  by  opinion :  not  by  a  certain  rule  to  which  he  can  apply 
his  intention  before  he  acts,  but  by  an  uncertain  and  variable  opin- 
ion, which  he  can  never  know  but  after  he  has  committed  the  act 
on  which  that  opinion  shall  be  passed.  He  lives  by  a  law,  (if  a 
law  it  be,)  which  he  can  never  know  before  he  has  offended  it. 
To  this  case  may  be  justly  applied  that  important  principle,  jnisera 
est  servitus  iibi  jus  est  aut  incognitum  aut  vagum.  If  Intromission 
be  not  criminal  till  it  exceeds  a  certain  point,  and  that  point  be  un- 
settled, and  consequently  different  in  different  minds,  the  right  of 
Intromission,  and  the  right  of  the  Creditor  arising  from  it,  are  all 
jura  vaga,  and,  by  consequence,  are  jura  incognita  ;  and  the  result 
can  be  no  other  than  a  niisera  servitus,  an  uncertainty  concerning 
the  event  of  action,  a  servile  dependence  on  private  opinion. 

'  It  may  be  urged,  and  with  great  plausibility,  that  there  may  be 
Intromission  without  fraud  ;  which,  however  true,  will  by  no  means 
justify  an  occasional  and  arbitrary  relaxation  of  the  law.  The  end 
of  law  is  protection  as  well  as  vengeance.  Indeed,  vengeance  is 
never  used  but  to  strengthen  protection.  That  society  only  is  well 
governed,  where  life  is  freed  from  danger  and  from  suspicion ; 
where  possession  is  so  sheltered  by  salutary  prohibitions,  that  vio- 
lation is  prevented  more  frequently  than  punished.  Such  a  pro- 
hibition was  this,  while  it  operated  with  its  original  force.  The 
creditor  of  the  deceased  was  not  only  without  loss,  but  without 
fear.  He  was  not  to  seek  a  remedy  for  an  injury  suffered ;  for, 
injury  was  warded  off. 

'As 


Aetat.  63.]  '' Vicious  intromission^  227 

'  As  the  law  has  been  sometimes  administered,  it  lays  us  open  to 
wounds,  because  it  is  imagined  to  have  the  power  of  healing.  To 
punish  fraud  when  it  is  detected,  is  the  proper  act  of  vindictive 
justice ;  but  to  prevent  frauds,  and  make  punishment  unnecessary, 
is  the  great  employment  of  legislative  wisdom.  To  permit  Intro- 
mission, and  to  punish  fraud,  is  to  make  law  no  better  than  a  pit- 
fall. To  tread  upon  the  brink  is  safe ;  but  to  come  a  step  further 
is  destruction.  But,  surely,  it  is  better  to  enclose  the  gulf,  and  hin- 
der all  access,  than  by  encouraging  us  to  advance  a  little,  to  entice 
us  afterwards  a  little  further,  and  let  us  perceive  our  folly  only  by 
our  destruction. 

'As  law  supplies  the  weak  with  adventitious  strength,  it  likewise 
enlightens  the  ignorant  with  extrinsick  understanding.  Law  teaches 
us  to  know  when  we  commit  injury,  and  when  we  suffer  it.  It  fixes 
certain  marks  upon  actions,  by  which  we  are  admonished  to  do  or 
to  forbear  them.  Qui  sibi  bene  tempcrat  in  Ileitis,  says  one  of  the 
fathers,  nunquam  cadet  in  illicita.  He  who  never  intromits  at  all, 
will  never  intromit  with  fraudulent  intentions. 

'  The  relaxation  of  the  law  against  vicious  intromission  has  been 
very  favourably  represented  by  a  great  master  of  jurisprudence  ', 
whose  words  have  been  exhibited  with  unnecessary  pomp,  and 
seem  to  be  considered  as  irresistibly  decisive.  The  great  moment 
of  his  authority  makes  it  necessary  to  examine  his  position.  "  Some 
ages  ago,  (says  he,)  before  the  ferocity  of  the  inhabitants  of  this 
part  of  the  island  was  subdued,  the  utmost  severity  of  the  civil  law 
was  necessary,  to  restrain  individuals  from  plundering  each  other. 
Thus,  the  man  who  intermeddled  irregularly  with  the  moveables 
of  a  person  deceased,  was  subjected  to  all  the  debts  of  the  deceased 
without  limitation.  This  makes  a  branch  of  the  law  of  Scotland, 
known  by  the  name  of  vicious  intromission  ;  and  so  rigidly  was  this 
regulation  applied  in  our  Courts  of  Law,  that  the  most  trifling 
moveable  abstracted  mala  fide,  subjected  the  intermeddler  to  the 
foregoing  consequences,  which  proved  in  many  instances  a  most 
rigorous  punishment.  But  this  severity  was  necessary,  in  order  to 
subdue  the  undisciplined  nature  of  our  people.  It  is  extremely 
remarkable,  that  in  proportion  to  our  improvement  in  manners, 
this  regulation  has  been  gradually  softened,  and  applied  by  our 
sovereign  Court  with  a  sparing  hand.'' 

'  I  find  myself  under  a  necessity  of  observing,  that  this  learned  and 
judicious  writer  has  not  accurately  distinguished  the  deficiencies 

'  Lord  Kamcs,  in  h\s  Historical  Law  Tracts.     BOSWELL. 

and 


2  28  '' Vicious  intromission'  [a. d.  1772. 

and  demands  of  the  different  conditions  of  human  life,  which,  from 
a  degree  of  savageness  and  independence,  in  which  all  laws  are 
vain,  passes  or  may  pass,  by  innumerable  gradations,  to  a  state 
of  reciprocal  benignity,  in  which  laws  shall  be  no  longer  necessary. 
Men  are  first  wild  and  unsocial,  living  each  man  to  himself,  taking 
from  the  weak,  and  losing  to  the  strong.  In  their  first  coalitions 
of  society,  much  of  this  original  savageness  is  retained.  Of  gen- 
eral happiness,  the  product  of  general  confidence,  there  is  yet  no 
thought.  Men  continue  to  prosecute  their  own  advantages  by  the 
nearest  way ;  and  the  utmost  severity  of  the  civil  law  is  necessary 
to  restrain  individuals  from  plundering  each  other.  The  restraints 
then  necessary,  are  restraints  from  plunder,  from  acts  of  publick 
violence,  and  undisguised  oppression.  The  ferocity  of  our  ances- 
tors, as  of  all  other  nations,  produced  not  fraud,  but  rapine.  They 
had  not  yet  learned  to  cheat,  and  attempted  only  to  rob.  As  man- 
ners grow  more  polished,  with  the  knowledge  of  good,  men  attain 
likewise  dexterity  in  evil.  Open  rapine  becomes  less  frequent,  and 
violence  gives  way  to  cunning.  Those  who  before  invaded  pastures 
and  stormed  houses,  now  begin  to  enrich  themselves  by  unequal 
contracts  and  fraudulent  intromissions.  It  is  not  against  the  vio- 
lence of  ferocity,  but  the  circumventions  of  deceit,  that  this  law 
was  framed ;  and  I  am  afraid  the  increase  of  commerce,  and  the 
incessant  struggle  for  riches  which  commerce  excites,  give  us  no 
prospect  of  an  end  speedily  to  be  expected  of  artifice  and  fraud. 
It  therefore  seems  to  be  no  very  conclusive  reasoning,  which  con- 
nects those  two  propositions ; — "  the  nation  is  become  less  fero- 
cious, and  therefore  the  laws  against  fraud  and  covin  '  shall  be  re- 
laxed." 

'Whatever  reason  may  have  influenced  the  Judges  to  a  relaxa- 
tion of  the  law,  it  was  not  that  the  nation  was  grown  less  fierce ; 
and,  I  am  afraid,  it  cannot  be  affirmed,  that  it  is  grown  less  fraudu- 
lent. 

'  Since  this  law  has  been  represented  as  rigorously  and  unreasona- 
bly penal,  it  seems  not  improper  to  consider  what  are  the  conditions 
and  qualities  that  make  the  justice  or  propriety  of  a  penal  law. 

'To  make  a  penal  law  reasonable  and  just,  two  conditions  are 
necessary,  and  two  proper.  It  is  necessary  that  the  law  should  be 
adequate  to  its  end ;  that,  if  it  be  observed,  it  shall  prevent  the 
evil  against  which  it  is  directed.     It  is,  secondly,  necessary  that  the 

*  '  Covin.  A  deceitful  agreement  between  two  or  more  to  the  hurt 
of  another."     Johnson's  Dictionary. 

end 


Aetat. 63.]  '' Vicious  intromission'  229 

end  of  the  law  be  of  such  importance,  as  to  deserve  the  security 
of  a  penal  sanction.  The  other  conditions  of  a  penal  law,  which 
though  not  absolutely  necessary,  are  to  a  very  high  degree  fit,  are, 
that  to  the  moral  violation  of  the  law  there  are  many  temptations, 
and  that  of  the  physical  observance  there  is  great  facility. 

'  All  these  conditions  apparently  concur  to  justify  the  law  which 
we  are  now  considering.  Its  end  is  the  security  of  property ;  and 
property  very  often  of  great  value.  The  method  by  which  it  effects 
the  security  is  efficacious,  because  it  admits,  in  its  original  rigour, 
no  gradations  of  injury;  but  keeps  guilt  and  innocence  apart,  by  a 
distinct  and  definite  limitation.  He  that  intromits,  is  criminal ;  he 
that  intromits  not,  is  innocent.  Of  the  two  secondary  considera- 
tions it  cannot  be  denied  that  both  are  in  our  favour.  The  temp- 
tation to  intromit  is  frequent  and  strong  ;  so  strong  and  so  frequent, 
as  to  require  the  utmost  activity  of  justice,  and  vigilance  of  caution, 
to  withstand  its  prevalence ;  and  the  method  by  which  a  man  may 
entitle  himself  to  legal  intromission,  is  so  open  and  so  facile,  that  to 
neglect  it  is  a  proof  of  fraudulent  intention  :  for  why  should  a  man 
omit  to  do,  (but  for  reasons  which  he  will  not  confess,)  that  which 
he  can  do  so  easily,  and  that  which  he  knows  to  be  required  by  the 
law  ?  If  temptation  were  rare,  a  penal  law  might  be  deemed  un- 
necessary. If  the  duty  enjoined  by  the  law  were  of  difficult  per- 
formance, omission,  though  it  could  not  be  justified,  might  be  pit- 
ied. But  in  the  present  case,  neither  equity  nor  compassion  operate 
against  it.  A  useful,  a  necessary  law  is  broken,  not  only  without 
a  reasonable  motive,  but  with  all  the  inducements  to  obedience 
that  can  be  derived  from  safety  and  facility. 

'  I  therefore  return  to  my  original  position,  that  a  law,  to  have  its 
effect,  must  be  permanent  and  stable.  It  may  be  said,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  schools.  Lex  non  recipit  jnajus  et  minus, — we  may  have 
a  law,  or  we  may  have  no  law,  but  we  cannot  have  half  a  law.  We 
must  either  have  a  rule  of  action,  or  be  permitted  to  act  by  dis- 
cretion and  by  chance.  Deviations  from  the  law  must  be  uniformly 
punished,  or  no  man  can  be  certain  when  he  shall  be  safe. 

'That  from  the  rigour  of  the  original  institution  this  Court  has 
sometimes  departed,  cannot  be  denied.  But,  as  it  is  evident  that 
such  deviations,  as  they  make  law  uncertain,  make  life  unsafe,  I 
hope,  that  of  departing  from  it  there  will  now  be  an  end  ;  that  the 
wisdom  of  our  ancestors  will  be  treated  with  due  reverence ;  and 
that  consistent  and  steady  decisions  will  furnish  the  people  with  a 
rule  of  action,  and  leave  fraud  and  fraudulent  intromission  no  fut- 
ure hope  of  impunity  or  escape.' 

With 


230  Lord  Karnes.  [a.d.  1773. 

With  such  comprehension  of  mind,  and  such  clearness  of 
penetration,  did  he  thus  treat  a  subject  altogether  new  to 
him,  without  any  other  preparation  than  my  having  stated 
to  him  the  arguments  which  had  been  used  on  each  side  of 
the  question.  His  intellectual  powers  appeared  with  pecul- 
iar lustre,  when  tried  against  those  of  a  wTiter  of  so  much 
fame  as  Lord  Kames,  and  that  too  in  his  Lordship's  own 
department '. 

This  masterly  argument,  after  being  prefaced  and  con- 
cluded with  some  sentences  of  my  own,  and  garnished  with 
the  usual  formularies,  was  actually  printed  and  laid  before 
the  Lords  of  Session  ^  but  without  success.  My  respected 
friend  Lord  Hailes,  however,  one  of  that  honourable  body, 
had  critical  sagacity  enough  to  discover  a  more  than  ordi- 
nary hand  in  the  Petition.  I  told  him  Dr.  Johnson  had  fa- 
voured me  with  his  pen.  His  Lordship,  Avith  wonderful  acu- 
men, pointed  out  exactly  where  his  composition  began,  and 

'  Lord  Kames  {Sketches  of  the  History  of  Man,  iv.  i68)  says  : — '  The 
undisciplined  manners  of  our  forefathers  in  Scotland  made  a  law 
necessaiy,  that  whoever  intermeddled  irregularly  with  the  goods  of  a 
deceased  person  should  be  subjected  to  pay  all  his  debts,  however 
extensive.  A  due  submission  to  legal  authority  has  in  effect  abro- 
gated that  severe  law,  and  it  is  now  [1774]  scarce  ever  heard  of.'  Scott 
introduces  Lord  Kames  in  Redgaiintlet,  at  the  end  of  chap,  i  of  the 
Narrative : — '  "  What's  the  matter  with  the  auld  bitch  next.'"  said  an 
acute  metaphysical  judge,  though  somewhat  coarse  in  his  manners, 
aside  to  his  brethren.'  In  Boswell's  poem  The  Court  of  Session  Gar- 
land, where  the  Scotch  judges  each  give  judgment,  we  read  : — 
'  Alemore  the  judgment  as  illegal  blames, 
"  'Tis  equity,  you  bitch,"  replies  my  Lord  Kames.' 
Chambers's  Traditions  of  Edinburgh,  n.  161.  Mr.  Chambers  adds  (p. 
171)  that  when  Kames  retired  from  the  Bench,  '  after  addressing  his 
brethren  in  a  solemn  speech,  in  going  out  of  the  door  of  the  court 
room,  he  turned  about,  and  casting  them  a  last  look,  cried,  in  his  usual 
familiar  tone,  "  Fare  ye  a'  weel,  ye  bitches."  ' 

^  At  this  time  there  were  no  civil  juries  in  Scotland.  '  But  this  was 
made  up  for,  to  a  certain  extent,  by  the  Supreme  Court,  consisting  of 
no  fewer  than  fifteen  judges ;  who  formed  a  sort  of  judicial  jury,  and 
were  dealt  with  as  such.  The  great  mass  of  the  business  was  carried 
on  by  writing.'    Qockhurn  s  feffrey,  i.  87.     See  post,  Jan.  19,  1775,  note. 

where 


Aetat.63.]  Casting  pearls  before  swine.  231 

where  it  ended '.  But  that  I  may  do  impartial  justice,  and 
conform  to  the  great  rule  of  Courts,  Simiii  cuiqiie  tribitito,  I 
must  add,  that  their  Lordships  in  general,  though  they  were 
pleased  to  call  this  '  a  well-drawn  paper,'  preferred  the  for- 
mer very  inferiour  petition  which  I  had  written ;  thus  con- 
firming the  truth  of  an  observation  made  to  me  by  one  of 
their  number,  in  a  merry  mood  :  '  My  dear  Sir,  give  yourself 
no  trouble  in  the  composition  of  the  papers  you  present  to 
us  ;  for,  indeed,  it  is  casting  pearls  before  swine.' 

I  renewed  my  solicitations  that  Dr.  Johnson  would  this 
year  accomplish  his  long-intended  visit  to  Scotland. 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 

'  Dear  Sir, 

'The  regret  has  not  been  little  with  which  I  have  missed  a 
journey  so  pregnant  with  pleasing  expectations,  as  that  in  which  I 
could  promise  myself  not  only  the  gratification  of  curiosity,  both 
rational  and  fanciful,  but  the  delight  of  seeing  those  whom  I  love 
and  esteem.  **********.  But  such  has  been  the  course  of 
things,  that  I  could  not  come  ;  and  such  has  been,  I  am  afraid,  the 
state  of  my  body,  that  it  would  not  well  have  seconded  my  inclina- 
tion. My  body,  I  think,  grows  better,  and  I  refer  my  hopes  to  an- 
other year  ;  for  I  am  very  sincere  in  my  design  to  pay  the  visit,  and 
take  the  ramble.  In  the  mean  time,  do  not  omit  any  opportunity 
of  keeping  up  a  favourable  opinion  of  me  in  the  minds  of  any  of  my 
friends.  Beattie's  book  "^  is,  I  believe,  every  day  more  liked  ;  at 
least,  I  like  it  more,  as  I  look  more  upon  it. 

'  I  am  glad  if  you  got  credit  by  your  cause,  and  am  yet  of  opinion, 

'  In  like  manner,  he  had  discovered  the  Life  of  Chcyncl  to  be  John- 
son's.    Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  17,  1774. 

"^  The  Essay  on  Truth,  pubHshed  in  May,  1770.  Beattie  wrote  on 
Sept.  30,  1772  : — '  The  fourth  edition  of  my  Essay  is  now  in  the  press.' 
Forbes's  Beattie,  ed.  1824,  p.  134.  Three  translations — French,  Dutch, 
and  German— had,  it  seems,  already  appeared.  lb.  p.  121.  '  Mr.  John- 
son made  Goldsmith  a  comical  answer  one  day,  when  seeming  to  re- 
pine at  the  success  of  Beattie's  Essay  on  Truth.  "  Here's  such  a  stir," 
said  he,  "  about  a  fellow  that  has  written  one  book,  and  I  have  written 
many."  "  Ah,  Doctor,"  says  he,  "  there  go  two  and  forty  sixpences 
you  know  to  one  guinea."  '  Piozzi's  Anec.  p.  179,  Sec  Boswell's  Heb- 
rides, Oct.  I,  1773. 

that 


232  The  history  of  ancient  tenures.       [a.d.  1773. 

that  our  cause  was  good,  and  that  the  determination  ought  to  have 
been  in  your  favour.     Poor  Hastie ',  I  think,  had  but  his  deserts. 

'  You  promised  to  get  me  a  Httle  Pmdar,  you  may  add  to  it  a 
little  AnacrcoJi. 

'  The  leisure  which  I  cannot  enjoy,  it  will  be  a  pleasure  to  hear 
that  you  employ  upon  the  antiquities  of  the  feudal  establishment. 
The  whole  system  of  ancient  tenures  is  gradually  passing  away ; 
and  I  wish  to  have  the  knowledge  of  it  preserved  adequate  and 
complete.  For  such  an  institution  makes  a  very  important  part  of 
the  history  of  mankind.  Do  not  forget  a  design  so  worthy  of  a 
scholar  who  studies  the  laws  of  his  country,  and  of  a  gentleman  who 
may  naturally  be  curious  to  know  the  condition  of  his  own  ancestors. 
'  I  am,  dear  Sir, 

'  Yours  with  great  affection, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 


'Aug.  31, 177: 


'My  Dear  Sir, 


'To  Dr.  Johnson. 

'  Edinburgh,  Dec.  25,  1772. 


'  I  was  much  disappointed  that  you  did  not  come  to  Scotland 
last  autumn.     However,  I  must  own  that  your  letter  prevents  me 

'  See  ante,  ii.  166,  210. 

"  On  the  same  day  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Taylor :—' Your  uneasiness  at 
the  misfortunes  of  your  relations,  I  comprehend  perhaps  too  well.  It 
was  an  irresistible  obtrusion  of  a  disagreeable  image,  which  you  always 
wished  away,  but  could  not  dismiss,  an  incessant  persecution  of  a 
troublesome  thought,  neither  to  be  pacified  nor  ejected.  Such  has  of 
late  been  the  state  of  my  own  mind.  I  had  formerly  great  command  of 
my  attention,  and  what  I  did  not  like  could  forbear  to  think  on.  But 
of  this  power,  which  is  of  the  highest  importance  to  the  tranquillity 
of  life,  I  have  been  so  much  exhausted,  that  I  do  not  go  into  a  com- 
pany towards  night,  in  which  1  foresee  anything  disagreeable,  nor  en- 
quire after  anything  to  which  I  am  not  indifferent,  lest  something, 
which  I  know  to  be  nothing,  should  fasten  upon  my  imagination,  and 
hinder  me  from  sleep.'  Notes  and  Queries,  6th  S.,  v.  383.  On  Oct.  6 
he  wrote  to  Dr.  Taylor : — '  I  am  now  within  a  few  hours  of  being  able 
to  send  the  ysYioX^  Dietionary  to  the  press  {ante,  ii.  178],  and  though  I 
often  went  sluggishly  to  the  work,  I  am  not  much  delighted  at  the 
co[mpletion].  My  purpose  is  to  come  down  to  Lichfield  next  week.' 
lb.  p.  422.  He  stayed  some  weeks  there  and  in  Ashbourne.  Piozzi 
Letters,  i.  55-70. 

from 


Aetat.  64.]  Dr.  Beattie.  233 

from  complaining ;  not  only  because  I  am  sensible  that  the  state 
of  your  health  was  but  too  good  an  excuse,  but  because  you  write 
in  a  strain  which  shews  that  you  have  agreeable  views  of  the 

scheme  which  we  have  so  long  proposed. 

******* 

'  I  communicated  to  Beattie  what  you  said  of  his  book  in  your 
last  letter  to  me.  He  writes  to  me  thus  : — "  You  judge  very  rightly 
in  supposing  that  Dr.  Johnson's  favourable  opinion  of  my  book 
must  give  me  great  delight.  Indeed  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  say 
how  much  I  am  gratified  by  it ;  for  there  is  not  a  man  upon  earth 
whose  good  opinion  I  would  be  more  ambitious  to  cultivate.  His 
talents  and  his  virtues  I  reverence  more  than  any  words  can  ex- 
press. The  extraordinary  civilities'  (the  paternal  attentions  I  should 
rather  say,)  and  the  many  instructions  I  have  had  the  honour  to 
receive  from  him,  will  to  me  be  a  perpetual  source  of  pleasure  in 
the  recollection, 

'•'•  Diwi  me?iwr  ipse  viei,  diim  spiritus  hos  rcget  artus'^.'''' 

'  "  I  had  still  some  thoughts,  while  the  summer  lasted,  of  being 
obliged  to  go  to  London  on  some  little  business  ;  otherwise  I  should 
certainly  have  troubled  him  with  a  letter  several  months  ago,  and 
given  some  vent  to  my  gratitude  and  admiration.  This  I  intend  to 
do,  as  soon  as  I  am  left  a  little  at  leisure.  Mean  time,  if  you  have 
occasion  to  write  to  him,  I  beg  you  will  offer  him  my  most  respect- 
ful compliments,  and  assure  him  of  the  sincerity  of  my  attachment 
and  the  warmth  of  my  gratitude." 

******* 

'  I  am,  &c. 

'James  Boswell.' 

1773:  ^TAT,  64.]— In  1773  his  only  publication  was  an 
edition  of  his  folio  Dictionary,  with  additions  and  cor- 
rections^;   nor  did   he,   so    far   as    is    known,    furnish    any 

'  See  ante,  ii.  163,  note  i. 

^  '  While  of  myself  I  yet  may  think,  while  breath  my  body  sways.' 

Morris's  xEticids,  iv.  336. 

^  It  should  seem  that  this  dictionary  work  was  not  unpleasant  to 
Johnson;  for  Stockdale  records  {Memoirs,  ii.  179)  that  about  1774, 
having  told  him  that  he  had  declined  to  edit  a  new  edition  of  Cham- 
bers's Dictionary  of  i/ic  Arts  and  Sciences,  '  Johnson  replied  that  if  I 
would  not  undertake  it,  he  would.  I  expressed  my  astonishment  that, 
in  his  easy  circumstances,  he  should  think  of  preparing  a  new  edition 

productions 


234       JoJmson  and  Steevenss  Shakspeare.    [a.d.  1773. 

productions  of  his  fertile  pen  to  any  of  his  numerous  friends 
or  dependants,  except  the  Preface '  to  his  old  amanuensis 
Macbean's  Dictionary  of  Ancient  Geography''.  His  Shak- 
speare, indeed,  which  had  been  received  with  high  approba- 
tion by  the  publick,  and  gone  through  several  editions,  w^as 
this  year  re-published  by  George  Steevens,  Esq.,  a  gentleman 
not  only  deeply  skilled  in  ancient  learning,  and  of  very  exten- 
sive reading  in  English  literature,  especially  the  early  writers, 
but  at  the  same  time  of  acute  discernment  and  elegant  taste  ^ 
It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  say,  that  by  his  great  and  valua- 
ble additions  to  Dr.  Johnson's  work,  he  justly  obtained  con- 
siderable reputation : 

'•  Divisum  imperium  cum  Jove  Cccsar  habet^.^ 

of  a  tedious,  scientific  dictionary.  "  Sir,"  said  he,  "  I  like  that  mud- 
dhng  work."  He  allowed  some  time  to«o  by,  during  which  another 
editor  was  found — Dr.  Rees.  ImmediatSy  after  this  intelligence  he 
called  on  me,  and  his  first  words  were : — "  It  is  gone.  Sir."  ' 

'  He,  however,  wrote,  or  partly  wrote,  an  Epitaph  on  Mrs.  Bell,  wife 
of  his  friend  John  Bell,  Esq.,  brother  of  the  Reverend  Dr.  Bell,  Preb- 
endary of  Westminster,  which  is  printed  in  his  Works  [i.  151].  It  is 
in  English  prose,  and  has  so  little  of  his  manner,  that  I  did  not  believe 
he  had  any  hand  in  it,  till  I  was  satisfied  of  the  fact  by  the  authority 
of  Mr.  Bell.  Boswell.  '  The  epitaph  is  to  be  seen  in  the  parish 
church  of  Watford.'     Hawkins's  yt'/^/zj-^;/,  p.  471. 

"^  See  ante,  i.  216.  Mme.  D'Arblay  {Memoirs  of  Dr.  Burney,  i.  271) 
says  that  this  year  Goldsmith  projected  a  Dictionary  of  Arts  and  Sci- 
ences, in  which  Johnson  was  to  take  the  department  of  ethics,  and 
that  Dr.  Burney  finished  the  article  Musician.  The  scheme  came  to 
nothing. 

^  We  may  doubt  Steevens's  taste.  Garrick  '  produced  Hamlet  with 
alterations,  rescuing,'  as  he  said, '  that  noble  play  from  all  the  rubbish 
of  the  fifth  act '  {ante,  ii.  98,  note).  Steevens  wrote  to  Garrick :— '  I 
expect  great  pleasure  from  the  perusal  of  your  altered  Hamlet.  It  is 
a  circumstance  in  favour  of  the  poet  which  I  have  long  been  wishing 
for.  You  had  better  throw  what  remains  of  the  piece  into  a  farce,  to 
appear  immediately  afterwards.  No  foreigner  who  should  happen  to 
be  present  at  the  exhibition,  would  ever  believe  it  was  formed  out  of 
the  loppings  and  excrescences  of  the  tragedy  itself.  You  may  entitle 
it  The  Grave-Diggcrs  ;  with  the  pleasant  Humours  of  Osric,  the  Danish 
Macaroni.'   _  Garrick  Corrcs.  i.  45 1 . 

*  A  line  of  an  epigram  in  the  Life  of  Virgil,  ascribed  to  Donatus. 

'To 


Aetat.  64.]         A  masquerade  in  Edinburgh.  235 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 

'Dear  Sir, 

'  I  have  read  your  kind  letter  much  more  than  the  elegant 
Pindar  which  it  accompanied.  I  am  always  glad  to  find  myself 
not  forgotten  ;  and  to  be  forgotten  by  you  would  give  me  great  un- 
easiness. My  northern  friends  have  never  been  unkind  to  me  :  I 
have  from  you,  dear  Sir,  testimonies  of  affection,  which  I  have  not 
■  often  been  able  to  excite  ;  and  Dr.  Beattie  rates  the  testimony  which 
I  was  desirous  of  paying  to  his  merit,  much  higher  than  I  should 
have  thought  it  reasonable  to  expect. 

'  I  have  heard  of  your  masquerade '.  What  says  your  synod  to 
such  innovations  ?  I  am  not  studiously  scrupulous,  nor  do  I  think 
a  masquerade  either  evil  in  itself,  or  very  likely  to  be  the  occasion 
of  evil ,  yet  as  the  world  thinks  it  a  very  licentious  relaxation  of 
manners,  I  would  not  have  been  one  of  the  first  masquers  in  a 
country  where  no  masquerade  had  ever  been  before '. 

'  A  new  edition  of  my  great  Dictionary  is  printed,  from  a  copy 
which  I  was  persuaded  to  revise ;  but  having  made  no  prepara- 
tion, I  was  able  to  do  very  little.  Some  superfluities  I  have  ex- 
punged, and  some  faults  I  have  corrected,  and  here  and  there 
have  scattered  a  remark ;  but  the  main  fabrick  of  the  work  re- 
mains as  it  was.  I  had  looked  very  little  into  it  since  I  wrote 
it,  and,  I  think,  I  found  it  full  as  often  better,  as  worse,  than  I 
expected. 

'  Baretti  and  Davies  have  had  a  furious  quarrel  ^ ;  a  quarrel,  I 

'  Given  by  a  lady  at  Edinburgh.     Boswell. 

*  There  had  been  masquerades  in  Scotland  ;  but  not  for  a  very  long- 
time. Bosw^ELL.  '  Johnson,'  as  Mr.  Croker  observes, '  had  no  doubt 
seen  an  account  of  the  masquerade  in  the  Gent.  Mag.  for  January,' 
p.  43.  It  is  stated  there  that '  it  was  the  first  masquerade  ever  seen 
in  Scotland.'     Boswell  appeared  as  a  dumb  Conjurer. 

'  Mrs.  Thrale  recorded  in  1776,  after  her  quarrel  with  Baretti: — 'I 
had  occasion  to  talk  of  him  with  Tom  Davies,  who  spoke  with  horror 
of  his  ferocious  temper;  "and  yet,"  says  I,  "there  is  great  sensibility 
about  Baretti.  I  have  seen  tears  often  stand  in  his  eyes."  "  Indeed," 
replies  Davies,  "  I  should  like  to  have  seen  that  sight  vastly,  when — 
even  butchers  weep."  '  Hayward's  Piozzi,  ii.  340.  Davies  said  of  Gold- 
smith : — 'He  least  of  all  mankind  approved  Baretti's  conversation; 
he  considered  him  as  an  insolent,  overbearing  foreigner.'  Davies,  in 
the  same  passage,  speaks  of  Baretti  as  '  this  unhappy  Italian.'  Da- 
vies's  Garrick,  ii.  168.  As  this  was  published  in  Baretti's  life-time,  the 
man  could  scarcely  have  been  so  ferocious  as  he  was  described. 

think, 


236  GoldsmitJis  comedy.  [a.d.  1773. 

think,  irreconcileable.  Dr.  Goldsmith  has  a  new  comedy,  which  is 
expected  in  the  spring.  No  name  is  yet  given  it '.  The  chief  di- 
version arises  from  a  stratagem  by  which  a  lover  is  made  to  mistake 
his  future  father-in-law's  house  for  an  inn.  This,  you  see,  borders 
upon  farce.  The  dialogue  is  quick  and  gay,  and  the  incidents  are 
so  prepared  as  not  to  seem  improbable. 

'  I  am  sorry  that  you  lost  your  cause  of  Intromission,  because  I 
yet  think  the  arguments  on  your  side  unanswerable.  But  you  seem, 
I  think,  to  say  that  you  gained  reputation  even  by  your  defeat ; 
and  reputation  you  will  daily  gain,  if  you  keep  Lord  Auchinleck's 
precept  in  your  mind,  and  endeavour  to  consolidate  in  your  mind 
a  firm  and  regular  system  of  law,  instead  of  picking  up  occasional 
fragments. 

'  My  health  seems  in  general  to  improve ;  but  I  have  been  trou- 
bled for  many  weeks  with  a  vexatious  catarrh,  which  is  sometimes 
sufficiently  distressful.  I  have  not  found  any  great  effects  from 
bleeding  and  physick ;  and  am  afraid,  that  I  must  expect  help 
from  brighter  days  and  softer  air. 

'  Write  to  me  now  and  then ;  and  whenever  any  good  befalls 

you,  make  haste  to  let  me  know  it,  for  no  one  will  rejoice  at  it 

more  than,  dear  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'London,  Feb.  24,  1773.' 

'  You  continue  to  stand  very  high  in  the  favour  of  Mrs.  Thrale.' 


'  '  There  were  but  a  few  days  left  before  the  comedy  was  to  be  acted, 
and  no  name  had  been  found  for  it.  "  We  are  all  in  labour,"  says 
Johnson,  whose  labour  of  kindness  had  been  untiring  throughout, 
"  for  a  name  to  Goldy's  play."  [See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Oct.  14,  1773.] 
What  now  stands  as  the  second  title,  The  Mistakes  of  a  Night,  was 
originally  the  only  one ;  but  it  was  thought  undignified  for  a  comedy. 
The  Old  House  a  New  Inn  was  suggested  in  place  of  it,  but  dismissed 
as  awkward.  Sir  Joshua  offered  a  much  better  name  to  Goldsmith, 
saying,  "  You  ought  to  call  it  The  Belle  s  Stratagem,  and  if  you  do  not 
I  will  damn  it."  When  Goldsmith,  in  whose  ear  perhaps  a  line  of 
Dryden's  lingei-ed,  hit  upon  She  Stoops  to  Conquer.'  Forster's  Gold- 
smith, ii.  337,  and  Northcote's  Rey?tolds,  i.  285.  Mr.  Forster  quotes  the 
line  of  Dryden  as 

'  But  kneels  to  conquer,  and  but  stoops  to  rise.' 
In  Lord  Chesterfield's  Letters,  iii.  131,  the  line  is  given, 

'  But  stoops  to  conquer,  and  but  kneels  to  rise.' 

While 


Aetat.  64.]    JokusoJis  American  correspondents.         237 

While  a  former  edition  of  my  work  was  passing  through 
the  press,  I  was  unexpectedly  favoured  with  a  packet  from 
Philadelphia,  from  Mr.  James  Abercrombie,  a  gentleman  of 
that  country,  who  is  pleased  to  honour  me  with  very  high 
praise  of  my  Life  of  Dr.  Johnson.  To  have  the  fame  of  my 
illustrious  friend,  and  his  faithful  biographer,  echoed  from 
the  New  World  is  extremely  flattering ;  and  my  grateful 
acknowledgements  shall  be  wafted  across  the  Atlantick,  Mr. 
Abercrombie  has  politely  conferred  on  me  a  considerable 
additional  obligation,  by  transmitting  to  me  copies  of  two 
letters  from  Dr.  Johnson  to  American  gentlemen.  '  Gladly, 
Sir,  (says  he,)  would  I  have  sent  you  the  originals  ;  but  being 
the  only  relicks  of  the  kind  in  America,  they  are  considered 
by  the  possessors  of  such  inestimable  value,  that  no  possible 
consideration  would  induce  them  to  part  with  them.  In 
some  future  publication  of  yours  relative  to  that  great  and 
good  man,  they  may  perhaps  be  thought  worthy  of  inser- 
tion.' 


'To  Mr.  B d'. 

'Sir, 

'  That  in  the  hurry  of  a  sudden  departure  you  should  yet  find 
leisure  to  consult  my  convenience,  is  a  degree  of  kindness,  and  an 
instance  of  regard,  not  only  beyond  my  claims,  but  above  my  ex- 
pectation. You  are  not  mistaken  in  supposing  that  I  set  a  high 
value  on  my  American  friends,  and  that  you  should  confer  a  very 
valuable  favour  upon  me  by  giving  me  an  opportunity  of  keeping 
myself  in  their  memory. 

'  I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  troubling  you  with  a  packet,  to 
which  1  wish  a  safe  and  speedy  conveyance,  because  I  wish  a  safe 
and  speedy  voyage  to  him  that  conveys  it. 
I  am,  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  London,  Johnson's-court, 
Fleet-street,  March  4,  I773-' 


'  This  gentleman,  who  now  resides  in  America  in  a  publick  charac- 
ter of  considerable  dignity,  desired  that  his  name  might  not  be  tran- 
scribed at  full  length.     Boswell, 

'To 


238         A71  American  edition  of  Rasselas.    [a.d.  1773. 

'  To  THE  Reverend  Mr.  White  '. 

'Dear  Sir, 

'Your  kindness  for  your  friends  accompanies  you  across  the 
Atlantick.  It  was  long  since  observed  by  Horace "'',  that  no  ship 
could  leave  care  behind ;  you  have  been  attended  in  your  voyage 
by  other  powers, — by  benevolence  and  constancy ;  and  I  hope 
care  did  not  often  shew  her  face  in  their  company. 

'  I  received  the  copy  of  Rasselas.  The  impression  is  not  mag- 
nificent, but  it  flatters  an  authour,  because  the  printer  seems  to 
have  expected  that  it  would  be  scattered  among  the  people.  The 
little  book  has  been  well  received,  and  is  translated  into  Italian  ^, 
French  \  German,  and  Dutch  ^  It  has  now  one  honour  more  by 
an  American  edition. 

'  I  know  not  that  much  has  happened  since  your  departure  that 
can  engage  your  curiosity.  Of  all  publick  transactions  the  whole 
world  is  now  informed  by  the  news-papers.     Opposition  seems  to 

'  Now  Doctor  White,  and  Bishop  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Penn- 
sylvania. During  his  first  visit  to  England  in  1 771,  as  a  candidate  for 
holy  orders,  he  was  several  times  in  company  with  Dr.  Johnson,  who 
expressed  a  wish  to  see  the  edition  of  his  Rasselas,  which  Dr.  White 
told  him  had  been  printed  in  America.  Dr.  White,  on  his  return,  im- 
mediately sent  him  a  copy.     Boswell. 

-  Horace.     Odes,  iii.  i.  34.    . 

^  Sc&post,  Oct.  12,  1779. 

*  Malone  had  the  following  from  Baretti : — '  Baretti  made  a  trans- 
lation of  Rasselas  into  French.  He  never,  however,  could  satisfy  him- 
self with  the  translation  of  the  first  sentence,  which  is  uncommonly 
lofty.  Mentioning  this  to  Johnson,  the  latter  said,  after  thinking  two 
or  three  minutes,  "  Well,  take  up  the  pen,  and  if  you  can  understand 
my  pronunciation,  I  will  see  what  I  can  do."  He  then  dictated  the 
sentence  to  the  translator,  which  proved  admirable,  and  was  imme- 
diately adopted.'  Prior's  Malone,  p.  161.  Baretti,  in  a  MS.  note  on 
his  copy  of  Piozzi  Letters,  i.  225,  says  : — 'Johnson  never  wrote  to  me 
French,  but  when  he  translated  for  me  the  first  paragraph  of  his  Ras- 
selas! That  Johnson's  French  was  faulty,  is  shown  by  his  letters  in 
that  language.     See  ante,  ii.  93,  and  post,  under  Nov.  12,  1775. 

^  It  has  been  translated  into  Bengalee,  Hungarian,  Polish,  Modern 
Greek,  and  Spanish,  besides  the  languages  mentioned  by  Johnson. 
Dr.  J.  Macaulay's  Bibliography  of  Rasselas.  It  reached  its  fifth  edition 
by  1761.  A  Bookseller  of  the  Last  Cetitfiry,'^.'!^'})-  In  the  same  book 
(p.  19)  it  is  mentioned  that  'a  sixteenth  share  in  The  Rambler  was 
sold  for  ;^22  2^.  6rt'.' 

despond ; 


Aetat.  64.]     A  new  edition  of  the  Dictionary.  239 

despond ;  and  the  dissenters,  though  they  have  taken  advantage 
of  unsettled  times,  and  a  government  much  enfeebled,  seem  not 
likely  to  gain  any  immunities  '. 

'  Dr.  Goldsmith  has  a  new  comedy  in  rehearsal  at  Covent-Gar- 
den,  to  which  the  manager  predicts  ill  success ".  I  hope  he  will 
be  mistaken.     I  think  it  deserves  a  very  kind  reception. 

'I  shall  soon  publish  a  new  edition  of  my  large  Dictionary ;  I 
have  been  persuaded  to  revise  it,  and  have  mended  some  faults, 
but  added  little  to  its  usefulness. 

'  No  book  has  been  published  since  your  departure,  of  which 
much  notice  is  taken.  Faction  only  fills  the  town  with  pam- 
phlets, and  greater  subjects  are  forgotten  in  the  noise  of  dis- 
cord. 

'Thus  have  I  written,  only  to  tell  you  how  little  I  have  to  tell. 
Of  myself  I  can  only  add,  that  having  been  afflicted  many  weeks 
with  a  very  troublesome  cough,  I  am  now  recovered. 

'  I  take  the  liberty  which  you  give  me  of  troubling  you  with 

*  A  motion  in  the  House  of  Commons  for  a  committee  to  consider 
of  the  subscription  to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  had,  on  Feb.  23  of  this 
year,  been  rejected  by  159  to  67.  Pari.  Hist.  xvii.  742-758.  A  bill  for 
the  relief  of  Protestant  Dissenters  that  passed  the  House  of  Com- 
mons by  65  to  14  on  March  25,  was  rejected  in  the  House  of  Lords  by 
86  to  28  on  April  2.     lb.  p.  790. 

*  See  post,  April  25,  1778,  where  Johnson  says  that  '  Colman  [the 
manager]  was  prevailed  on  at  last  by  much  solicitation,  nay,  a  kind  of 
force,  to  bring  it  on.'  Mr.  Forster  {Life  of  Goldsinith,  ii.  334-6)  writes : 
— '  The  actors  and  actresses  had  taken  their  tone  from  the  manager. 
Gentleman  Smith  threw  up  Young  Marlow  ;  Woodward  refused  Tony 
Lumpkin;  Mrs.  Abington  declined  Miss  Hardcastle  [in  TJic  Athe- 
ncEum,  No.  3041,  it  is  pointed  out  that  Mrs.  Abington  was  not  one  of 
Colman's  Company] ;  and,  in  the  teeth  of  his  own  misgivings,  Colman 
could  not  contest  with  theirs.  He  would  not  suffer  a  new  scene  to 
be  painted  for  the  play,  he  refused  to  furnish  even  a  new  dress,  and 
was  careful  to  spread  his  forebodings  as  widely  as  he  could.'  The 
play  met  with  the  greatest  success.  '  There  was  a  new  play  by  Dr. 
Goldsmith  last  night,  which  succeeded  prodigiously,'  wrote  Horace 
Walpole  {Letters,  v.  452).  The  laugh  was  turned  against  the  doubting 
manager.  Ten  days  after  the  play  had  been  brought  out,  Johnson 
wrote  to  Mrs.  Thrale :  —  'C —  [Colman]  is  so  distressed  with  abuse 
about  his  play,  that  he  has  solicited  Goldsmith  to  take  him  off  t lie  rack 
of  the  newspapers.'  Piozzi  Letters,  i.  80.  See  post,  just  before  June  22, 
1784,  for  Mr.  Steevens's  account. 

a  letter, 


240  Dr.  GoldsmitJt  s  apology.  [a.d.  1773. 

a  letter,  of  which  you  will  please   to  fill   up  the  direction.      I 
am,  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  Johnson's-court,  Fleet-street, 
London,  March  4,  1773.' 

On  Saturday,  April  3,  the  day  after  my  arrival  in  London 
this  year,  I  went  to  his  house  late  in  the  evening,  and  sat 
with  Mrs.  Williams  till  he  came  home.  I  found  in  the  Lon- 
don Chrojiiclc,  Dr.  Goldsmith's  apology '  to  the  publick  for 
beating  Evans,  a  bookseller,  on  account  of  a  paragraph  in  a 
newspaper  published  by  him,  which  Goldsmith  thought  im- 
pertinent to  him  and  to  a  lady  of  his  acquaintance  \  The 
apology  was  written  so  much  in  Dr.  Johnson's  manner,  that 
both  Mrs.  Williams  and  I  supposed  it  to  be  his ;  but  when 
he  came  home,  he  soon  undeceived  us.  When  he  said  to 
Mrs.  Williams, '  Well,  Dr.  Goldsmith's  manifesto  has  got  into 
your  paper';'  I  asked  him  if  Dr.  Goldsmith  had  written  it, 
with  an  air  that  made  him  see  I  suspected  it  was  his,  though 
subscribed  by  Goldsmith.  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  Dr.  Goldsmith 
would  no  more  have  asked  me  to  write  such  a  thing  as  that  for 
him,  than  he  would  have  asked  me  to  feed  him  with  a  spoon, 
or  to  do  any  thing  else  that  denoted  his  imbecility.     I  as  much 

'  It  was  anything  but  an  apology,  unless  apology  is  used  in  its  old 
meaning  of  defence. 

'  Nine  days  after  She  Stoops  to  Conquer  was  brought  out,  a  vile  libel, 
written,  it  is  believed,  by  Kenrick  {ante,  i.  576),  was  published  by  Evans 
in  The  London  Packet.  The  libeller  dragged  in  one  of  the  Miss  Hor- 
necks,  'the  Jessamy  Bride'  of  Goldsmith's  verse.  Goldsmith,  believ- 
ing Evans  had  written  the  libel,  struck  him  with  his  cane.  The  blow 
was  returned,  for  Evans  was  a  strong  man.  '  He  indicted  Goldsmith 
for  the  assault,  but  consented  to  a  compromise  on  his  paying  fifty 
pounds  to  a  Welsh  charity.  The  papers  abused  the  poet,  and  stead- 
ily turned  aside  from  the  real  point  in  issue.  At  last  he  stated  it  him- 
self, in  an  Address  to  the  Public,  in  the  Daily  Advertiser  of  March  31.' 
Forster's  Goldsjnith,  ii.  347-351.  The  libel  is  given  in  Goldsmith's 
Misc.  Works  (1801),  i.  103. 

'  '  Your  paper,'  I  suppose,  because  the  Chronicle  was  taken  in  at 
Bolt  Court.     See  ante,  ii.  1 18. 

believe 


Aetat.  G4.J      Sir  Jolui  Dalrymples  Memoirs.  241 

believe  that  he  wrote  it,  as  if  I  had  seen  him  do  it.  Sir,  had 
he  shewn  it  to  any  one  friend,  he  would  not  have  been  al- 
lowed to  publish  it.  He  has,  indeed,  done  it  very  well ;  but 
it  is  a  foolish  thing  well  done.  I  suppose  he  has  been  so 
much  elated  with  the  success  of  his  new  comedy,  that  he  has 
thought  every  thing  that  concerned  him  must  be  of  impor- 
tance to  the  publick.'  BOSWELL.  '  I  fancy.  Sir,  this  is  the 
first  time  that  he  has  been  engaged  in  such  an  adventure.' 
Johnson.  '  Why,  Sir,  I  believe  it  is  the  first  time  he  has 
beat;  he  may  have  been  beaten  before'.  This,  Sir,  is  a  new 
plume  to  him.' 

I  mentioned  Sir  John  Dalrymple's  i'l/rwc/r.y  of  Great-Brit- 
ain a)id Ireland,  and  his  discoveries  to  the  prejudice  of  Lord 
Russel  and  Algernon  Sydney.  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir,  every 
body  who  had  just  notions  of  government  thought  them 
rascals  before.  It  is  well  that  all  mankind  now  see  them  to 
be  rascals.'  BoswELL.  '  But,  Sir,  may  not  those  discoveries 
be  true  without  their  being  rascals?'  JOHNSON.  '  Consider, 
Sir ;  would  any  of  them  have  been  willing  to  have  had  it 
known  that  they  intrigued  with  France  ?  Depend  upon  it, 
Sir,  he  who  does  what  he  is  afraid  should  be  known,  has 
something  rotten  about  him.  This  Dalrymple  seems  to  be 
an  honest  fellow " ;  for  he  tells  equally  what  makes  against 
both  sides.  But  nothing  can  be  poorer  than  his  mode  of 
writing,  it  is  the  mere  bouncing  of  a  school-boy.  Great  He  ! 
but  greater  She  !  and  such  stuff'.' 


'  See  Forster's  Goldsviith,  i.  265,  for  a  possible  explanation  of  this 
sarcasm. 

■■'  Horace  Walpolc  is  violent  against  Dalrymple  and  the  King. 
'What  must,'  he  says,  'be  the  designs  of  this  reign  when  George  III 
encourages  a  Jacobite  wretch  to  hunt  in  France  for  materials  for 
blackening  the  heroes  who  withstood  the  enemies  of  Protestantism 
and  liberty.'    Journal  of  tlie  Reign  of  George  III,  i.  286. 

^  Mr.  Hallam  pointed  out  to  Mr.  Crokcr  that  Johnson  was  speaking 
of  Dalrj'mplc's  description  of  the  parting  of  Lord  and  Lady  Russell: 
— '  With  a  deep  and  noble  silence ;  with  a  long  and  fixed  look,  in 
which  respect  and  affection  unmingled  with  passion  were  expressed, 
Lord  and  Lady  Russell  parted  for  ever — he  great  in  this  last  act  of  his 
n. — 16  I  could 


242  Action  in  publick  speaking,  [a.d.  1773. 

I  could  not  agree  with  him  in  this  criticism  ;  for  though 
Sir  John  Dalrymple's  style  is  not  regularly  formed  in  any 
respect,  and  one  cannot  help  smiling  sometimes  at  his  af- 
fected gratidiloquence,  there  is  in  his  writing  a  pointed  vivac- 
ity, and  much  of  a  gentlemanly  spirit. 

At  Mr.  Thrale's,  in  the  evening,  he  repeated  his  usual 
paradoxical  declamation  against  action  in  publick  speak- 
ing '.  '  Action  can  have  no  effect  upon  reasonable  minds.  It 
may  augment  noise,  but  it  never  can  enforce  argument.  If 
you  speak  to  a  dog,  you  use  action  ;  you  hold  up  your  hand 
thus,  because  he  is  a  brute ;  and  in  proportion  as  men  are 
removed  from  brutes,  action  will  have  the  less  influence 
upon  them.'  Mrs.  Thrale.  '  What  then,  Sir,  becomes  of 
Demosthenes's  saying?  "  Action,  action,  action  !"  '  JOHN- 
SON. '  Demosthenes,  Madam,  spoke  to  an  assembly  of  brutes; 
to  a  barbarous  people  ^' 

I  thought  it  extraordinary,  that  he  should  deny  the  power 
of  rhetorical  action  upon  human  nature,  when  it  is  proved  by 
innumerable  facts  in  all  stages  of  society.  Reasonable  beings 
are  not  solely  reasonable.  They  have  fancies  which  may  be 
pleased,  passions  which  may  be  roused. 

Lord  Chesterfield  being  mentioned,  Johnson  remarked, 
that  almost  all  of  that  celebrated  nobleman's  witty  sayings 
were  puns\  He,  however,  allowed  the  merit  of  good  wit  to 
his  Lordship's  saying  of  Lord  Tyrawley  *  and  himself,  when 


life,  but  she  greater.*  Dalrymple's  Metnoz'rs,  i.  31.  Ste  post,  April  30, 
1773,  for  the  foppery  of  Dalrymple  ;  and  Boswell's  Hebrides,  near  the 
end,  for  Johnson's  imitation  of  Dalrymple's  style. 

'  See  ante,  i.  387. 

^  See  a?i/e,  ii.  196. 

^  Horace  Walpole  says : — '  It  was  not  Chesterfield's  fault  if  he  had 
not  wit ;  nothing  exceeded  his  efforts  in  that  point ;  and  though  they 
were  far  from  producing  the  wit,  they  at  least  amply  yielded  the  ap- 
plause he  aimed  at.'     Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  George  II,  i.  5 1 . 

*  A  curious  account  of  Tyrawley  is  given  in  Walpole's  Reign  of 
George  II,  iii.  108.  He  had  been  Ambassador  at  Lisbon,  and  he  '  even 
affected  not  to  know  where  the  House  of  Commons  was.'  Walpole 
says  iLettcrs,  i.  215,  note)  that  '  Pope  has  mentioned  his  and  another 

both 


Aetat.  64.]  The  Wliigs  and  alms-giving.  243 

both  very  old  and  infirm :  '  Tyrawley  and  I  have  been  dead 
these  two  years ;  but  we  don't  choose  to  have  it  known.' 

He  talked  with  approbation  of  an  intended  edition  of  TJie 
Spectator,  with  notes;  two  volumes  of  which  had  been  pre- 
pared by  a  gentleman  eminent  in  the  literary  world,  and 
the  materials  which  he  had  collected  for  the  remainder  had 
been  transferred  to  another  hand '.  He  observed,  that  all 
works  which  describe  manners,  require  notes  in  sixty  or 
seventy  years,  or  less  ;  and  told  us,  he  had  communicated  all 
he  knew  that  could  throw  light  upon  The  Spectator.  He 
said, '  Addison  had  made  his  Sir  Andrew  Freeport  a  true 
Whig,  arguing  against  giving  charity  to  beggars,  and  throw- 
ing out  other  such  ungracious  sentiments;  but  that  he  had 
thought  better,  and  made  amends  by  making  him  found  an 
hospital  for  decayed  farmers'.     He  called  for  the  volume 

ambassador's  seraglios  in  one  of  \{\?,  Imitations  of  Horace'     He  refers 
to  the  lines  in  the  Imitations,  i.  6.  1 20 : — 

'Go  live  with  Chartres,  in  each  vice  outdo 
K — I's  lewd  cargo,  or  Ty — y's  crew.' 
Kinnoul  and  Tyrawley,  says  Walpole,  are  meant. 

'  According  to  Chalmers,  who  himself  has  performed  this  task,  Dr. 
Percy  was  the  first  of  these  gentlemen,  and  Dr.  John  Calder  the  sec- 
ond.    Croker. 

•  Sir  Andrew  Freeport,  after  giving  money  to  some  importunate 
beggars,  says  : — '  I  ought  to  give  to  an  hospital  of  invalids,  to  recover 
as  many  useful  subjects  as  I  can,  but  I  shall  bestow  none  of  my  boun- 
ties upon  an  almshouse  of  idle  people;  and  for  the  same  reason  I 
should  not  think  it  a  reproach  to  me  if  I  had  withheld  my  charity  from 
those  common  beggars.'  The  Spectator,  No.  232.  This  paper  is  not 
by  Addison.  In  No.  549,  which  is  by  Addison,  Sir  Andrew  is  made 
to  found 'an  almshouse  for  a  dozen  superannuated  husbandmen.'  I 
have  before  (ii.  137)  contrasted  the  opinions  of  Johnson  and  Fielding 
as  to  almsgiving.  A  more  curious  contrast  is  afforded  by  the  follow- 
ing passage  in  Tom  Jones, hooV  i.  chap.  iii. : — 'I  have  told  my  reader 
that  Mr.  AUworthy  inherited  a  large  fortune,  that  he  had  a  good  heart, 
and  no  family.  Hence,  doubtless,  it  will  be  concluded  by  many  that 
he  lived  like  an  honest  man,  owed  no  one  a  shilling,  took  nothing  but 
what  was  his  own,  kept  a  good  house,  entertained  his  neighbours  with 
a  hearty  welcome  at  his  table,  and  was  charitable  to  the  poor,  i.  e.  to 
those  who  had  rather  beg  than  work,  by  giving  them  the  offals  from 
it  •  that  he  died  immensely  rich,  and  built  an  hospital.' 

of 


244  Scripture  phrases.  [a.d.  1773. 

of  TJie  Spectator,  in  which  that  account  is  contained,  and 
read  it  aloud  to  us.  He  read  so  well,  that  every  thing  ac- 
quired additional  weight  and  grace  from  his  utterance '. 

The  conversation  having  turned  on  modern  imitations  of 
ancient  ballads,  and  some  one  having  praised  their  simplic- 
ity, he  treated  them  with  that  ridicule  which  he  always  dis- 
played when  that  subject  was  mentioned  ^ 

He  disapproved  of  introducing  scripture  phrases  into  sec- 
ular discourse.  This  seemed  to  me  a  question  of  some  dif- 
ficulty, A  scripture  expression  may  be  used,  like  a  highly 
classical  phrase,  to  produce  an  instantaneous  strong  impres- 
sion ;  and  it  may  be  done  without  being  at  all  improper. 
Yet  I  own  there  is  danger,  that  applying  the  language  of 
our  sacred  book  to  ordinary  subjects  may  tend  to  lessen 
our  reverence  for  it.  If  therefore  it  be  introduced  at  all,  it 
should  be  with  very  great  caution. 

On  Thursday,  April  8,  I  sat  a  good  part  of  the  evening 

'  Boswell  says  {Hebrides,  Aug.  26,  1773) : — '  His  recitation  was  grand 
and  affecting,  and,  as  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  has  observed  to  me,  had  no 
more  tone  than  it  should  have.'  Mrs.  Piozzi  {Anec.  p.  302)  writes : — 
'  His  manner  of  repeating  deserves  to  be  described,  though  at  the  same 
time  it  defeats  all  power  of  description  ;  but  whoever  once  heard  him 
repeat  an  ode  of  Horace  would  be  long  before  they  could  endure  to 
hear  it  repeated  by  another.'     See  ante,  ii.  106,  note  2. 

-  '  Some  of  the  old  legendary  stories  put  in  verse  by  modern  writers 
provoked  him  to  caricature  them  thus  one  day  at  Streatham  : — 
"  The  tender  infant,  meek  and  mild. 
Fell  down  upon  the  stone ; 
The  nurse  took  up  the  squealing  child, 
But  still  the  child  squeal'd  on." 
A  famous  ballad  also  beginning  Rio  verde,  Rio  vcrde,  when  I  com- 
mended the  translation  of  it,  he  said  he  could  do  it  better  himself,  as 

thus : — 

"  Glassy  water,  glassy  water, 

Down  whose  current  clear  and  strong. 

Chiefs  confused  in  mutual  slaughter. 

Moor  and  Christian  roll  along." 

"  But,  Sir,"  said  I,  "this  is  not  ridiculous  at  all."     "  Why  no,"  replied 

he,  "  why  should  I  always  write  ridiculously?"'     Piozzi's  yi;?(;r.  p.  65. 

See  ««/£",  ii.  157,  note  i.      Neither  Boswell  nor  Mrs.  Piozzi  mentions 

Percy  by  name  as  the  subject  of  Johnson's  ridicule. 

with 


Aetat.64.]  Btcruei's  History.  245 

with  him,  but  he  was  very  silent.  He  said,  '  Burnet's  His- 
tory of  his  own  times  is  very  entertaining'.  The  style,  in- 
deed, is  mere  chit-chat  ^  I  do  not  believe  that  Burnet  in- 
tentionally lyed ;  but  he  was  so  much  prejudiced,  that  he 
took  no  pains  to  find  out  the  truth.  He  was  like  a  man 
who  resolves  to  regulate  his  time  by  a  certain  watch ;  but 
will  not  inquire  whether  the  watch  is  right  or  not  \' 

Though  he  was  not  disposed  to  talk,  he  was  unwilling 
that  I  should  leave  him  ;  and  when  I  looked  at  my  watch, 
and  told  him  it  was  twelve  o'clock,  he  cried, '  What's  that  to 
you  and  me  ?'  and  ordered  Frank  to  tell  Mrs.  Williams  that 
we  were  coming  to  drink  tea  with  her,  which  we  did.  It 
was  settled  that  we  should  go  to  church  together  next 
day. 

On  the  9th  of  April,  being  Good  Friday,  I  breakfasted 
with  him  on  tea  and  cross-buns*;  Doctor  Levet,  as  Frank 
called  him,  making  the  tea.  He  carried  me  with  him  to 
the  church  of  St.  Clement  Danes,  where  he  had  his  seat; 
and  his  behaviour  was,  as  I  had  imaged  to  myself,  solemnly 

'  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Oct.  4, 1773. 

^  Rogers  {^Table-Talk,  p.  88)  said  that  'Fox  considered  Burnet's 
style  to  be  perfect.' 

^  Johnson  {Works,  vii.  96)  quotes:  '  Dalrymple's  observation,  who 
says  "  that  whenever  Burnet's  narrations  are  examined,  he  appears 
to  be  mistaken."  '  Lord  Bolingbroke  {Works,  iv.  151)  wrote  of  party 
pamphlets  and  histories : — '  Read  them  with  suspicion,  for  they  de- 
serve to  be  suspected  ;  pay  no  regard  to  the  epithets  given,  nor  to  the 
judgments  passed  ;  neglect  all  declamation,  weigh  the  reasoning,  and 
adv'ert  to  fact.  With  such  precautions,  even  Burnet's  history  may  be 
of  some  use.'  Horace  Walpole,  noticing  an  attack  on  Burnet,  says 
{Letters,  vi.  487) : — '  It  shows  his  enemies  are  not  angry  at  his  telling 
falsehoods,  but  the  truth. ...  I  will  tell  you  what  was  said  of  his  His- 
tory by  one  whose  testimony  you  yourself  will  not  dispute.  That  con- 
fessor said,  "  Damn  him,  he  has  told  a  great  deal  of  truth,  but  where 
the  devil  did  he  learn  it?"     This  was  St.  Attcrbury's  testimony.' 

*  The  cross-buns  were  for  Boswell  and  Levet.  Johnson  recorded 
{Pr.  and  Med.  p.  121) : — 'On  this  whole  day  I  took  nothing  of  nour- 
ishment but  one  cup  of  tea  without  milk  ;  but  the  fast  was  very  incon- 
venient. Towards  night  I  grew  fretful  and  impatient,  unable  to  fix 
my  mind  or  govern  my  thoughts.' 

devout. 


246  Good  Friday  with  Johnson.  [a.d.  1773 

devout '.  I  never  shall  forget  the  tremulous  earnestness 
with  which  he  pronounced  the  awful  petition  in  the  Litany: 
'  In  the  hour  of  death,  and  at*  the  day  of  judgement,  good 
Lord  deliver  us.' 

We  went  to  church  both  in  the  morning  and  evening.  In 
the  interval  between  the  two  services  we  did  not  dine ;  but 
he  read  in  the  Greek  New  Testament,  and  I  turned  over 
several  of  his  books. 

In  Archbishop  Laud's  Diary,  I  found  the  following  pas- 
sage, which  I  read  to  Dr.  Johnson  : — 

'  1623.  February  i,  Sunday.  I  stood  by  the  most  illustrious 
Prince  Charles  ^,  at  dinner.  He  was  then  very  merry,  and  talked 
occasionally  of  many  things  with  his  attendants.  Among  other 
things,  he  said,  that  if  he  were  necessitated  to  take  any  particular 
profession  of  life,  he  could  not  be  a  lawyer,  adding  his  reasons ; 
"  I  cannot,  (saith  he,)  defend  a  bad,  nor  yield  in  a  good  cause."  ' 

Johnson.  '  Sir,  this  is  false  reasoning  ;  because  every  cause 
has  a  bad  side":  and  a  lawyer  is  not  overcome,  though  the 
cause  which  he  has  endeavoured  to  support  be  determined 
against  him.' 

I  told  him  that  Goldsmith  had  said  to  me  a  few  days 
before, '  As  I  take  my  shoes  from  the  shoemaker,  and  my 
coat  from  the  taylor,  so  I  take  my  religion  from  the  priest.' 
I  regretted  this  loose  way  of  talking.  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  he 
knows  nothing;  he  has  made  up  his  mind  about  nothing \' 

To  my  great  surprize  he  asked  me  to  dine  with  him  on 
Easter-day.  I  never  supposed  that  he  had  a  dinner  at  his 
house;  for  I  had  not  then  heard  of  any  one  of  his  friends 

'  It  is  curious  to  compare  with  this  Johnson's  own  record  : — '  I 
found  the  service  not  burdensome  nor  tedious,  though  I  could  not 
hear  the  lessons.  I  hope  in  time  to  take  pleasure  in  public  worship.' 
Pr.  and  Med.  p.  121. 

'  In  the  original  in. 

=  Afterwards  Charles  I.     Boswell. 

■*  See  ante,  ii.  54. 

^  See /fl^/,  April  9,  1778,  where  Johnson  said: — 'Goldsmith  had  no 
settled  notions  upon  any  subject ;  so  he  talked  always  at  random.' 

having 


Aetat.64.]  Diiifier  in  Johnson  s  house.  247 

having  been  entertained  at  his  table.  He  told  me, '  I  gen- 
erally have  a  meat  pye  on  Sunday :  it  is  baked  at  a  publick 
oven,  which  is  very  properly  allowed,  because  one  man  can 
attend  it ;  and  thus  the  advantage  is  obtained  of  not  keep- 
ing servants  from  church  to  dress  dinners '.' 
•  April  II,  being  Easter-Sunday,  after  having  attended  Di- 
vine Service  at  St.  Paul's,  I  repaired  to  Dr.  Johnson's.  I  had 
gratified  my  curiosity  much  in  dining  with  jEAN  JAQUES 
Rousseau  ^  while  he  lived  in  the  wilds  of  Neufchatel :  I  had 
as  great  a  curiosity  to  dine  with  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  in 
the  dusky  recess  of  a  court  in  Fleet-street.  I  supposed  we 
should  scarcely  have  knives  and  forks,  and  only  some  strange, 
uncouth,  ill-drest  dish  :  but  I  found  every  thing  in  very  good 
order.  We  had  no  other  company  but  Mrs.  Williams  and 
a  young  woman  whom  I  did  not  know.  As  a  dinner  here 
was  considered  as  a  singular  phaenomenon,  and  as  I  was  fre- 
quently interrogated  on  the  subject,  my  readers  may  perhaps 
be  desirous  to  know  our  bill  of  fare.  Foote,  I  remember,  in 
allusion  to  Francis,  the  negro,  was  willing  to  suppose  that 
our  repast  was  black  brctJi.  But  the  fact  was,  that  we  had 
a  very  good  soup,  a  boiled  leg  of  lamb  and  spinach,  a  veal 
pye,  and  a  rice  pudding  \ 

'  The  next  day  Johnson  recorded  : — '  I  have  had  some  nights  of  that 
quiet  and  continual  sleep  which  I  had  wanted  till  I  had  almost  for- 
gotten it.'     Pemb.  Coll.  MSS. 

^  See  anle,  ii.  13. 

'  We  have  the  following  account  of  Johnson's  kitchen  in  1778: 
'  Mr.  Thrale. — "  And  pray  who  is  clerk  of  your  kitchen,  Sir?"  Dr.  J. 
— "  Why,  Sir,  I  am  afraid  there  is  none  ;  a  general  anarchy  prevails  in 
my  kitchen,  as  I  am  told  by  Mr.  Levet,  who  says  it  is  not  now  what  it 
used  to  be."  Mr.  T. — "But  how  do  you  get  your  dinners  drest?" 
Dr.  J. — "  Why,  Desmoulins  has  the  chief  management  of  the  kitchen, 
but  our  roasting  is  not  magnificent,  for  we  have  no  jack."  Mr.  T. — 
"No  jack.?  Why,  how  do  they  manage  without.''"  Dr.  J. — "Small 
joints,  I  believe,  they  manage  with  a  string,  and  larger  are  done  at  the 
tavern.  I  have  some  thoughts  (with  a  profound  gravity)  of  buying  a 
jack,  because  I  think  a  jack  is  some  credit  to  a  house."  Mr.  T. — 
"  Well,  but  you'll  have  a  spit  too  ?"  Dr.  J. — "  No,  Sir,  no  ;  that  would 
be  superfluous ;  for  we  shall  never  use  it ;  if  a  jack  is  seen,  a  spit  will 
be  presumed."  '     Mme.  D'Arblay's  Diary,  i.  115. 

Of 


248  GoldsmitJts  regard  for  Johnson.      [a.d.  1773. 

Of  Dr.  John  Campbell,  the  authour,  he  said, '  He  is  a  very 
inquisitive  and  a  very  able  man,  and  a  man  of  good  religious 
principles,  though  I  am  afraid  he  has  been  deficient  in  prac- 
tice. Campbell  is  radically  right ;  and  we  may  hope,  that  in 
time  there  will  be  good  practice  *.' 

He  owned  that  he  thought  Hawkesworth  was  one  of  his 
imitators^  but  he  did  not  think  Goldsmith  was.  Goldsmith, 
he  said,  had  great  merit.  BOSWELL.  '  But,  Sir,  he  is  much 
indebted  to  you  for  his  getting  so  high  in  the  publick  esti- 
mation.' Johnson.  '  Why,  Sir,  he  has  perhaps  got  sooner  to 
it  by  his  intimacy  with  me.' 

Goldsmith,  though  his  vanity  often  excited  him  to  oc- 
casional competition,  had  a  very  high  regard  for  Johnson, 
which  he  at  this  time  expressed  in  the  strongest  manner  in 
the  Dedication  of  his  comedy,  entitled,  SJie  Stoops  to  Con- 
quer ^ 

Johnson  observed,  that  there  were  very  few  books  printed 
in  Scotland  before  the  Union.  He  had  seen  a  complete 
collection  of  them  in  the  possession  of  the  Hon.  Archibald 
Campbell,  a  non-juring  Bishop  \  I  wish  this  collection  had 
been  kept  entire.  Many  of  them  are  in  the  library  of  the 
Faculty  of  Advocates  at  Edinburgh.  I  told  Dr.  Johnson 
that  I  had  some  intention  to  write  the  life  of  the  learned 
and  worthy  Thomas  Ruddiman  ^  He  said, '  I  should  take 
pleasure  in  helping  you  to  do  honour  to  him.  But  his  fare- 
well letter  to  the  Faculty  of  Advocates,  when  he  resigned 
the  office  of  their  Librarian,  should  have  been  in  Latin.' 


'  See  a7ite,  i.  484.  -  See  ante,  i.  293. 

^  '  By  inscribing  this  slight  performance  to  you,  I  do  not  mean  so 
much  to  compliment  you  as  myself.  It  may  do  me  some  honour  to 
inform  the  publick,  that  I  have  lived  many  years  in  intimacy  with  you. 
It  may  serve  the  interests  of  mankind  also  to  inform  them,  that  the 
greatest  wit  may  be  found  in  a  character,  without  impairing  the  most 
unaffected  piety.'     Boswell. 

*  See  an  account  of  this  learned  and  respectable  gentleman,  and  of 
his  curious  work  on  the  Middle  State,  Journal  of  a  Tour  to  the  Hebri- 
des, yc  A  ^d\\..-\^.y]\.     [Oct.  25.]     Boswell.     See/f.y/,  June  9,  1784. 

*  See  atite,  i.  261,  for  Boswell's  projected  works,  and  i.  244. 

I  put 


Aetat.  64.]    Johnsons  attempts  to  keep  a  journal.       249 

I  put  a  question  to  him  upon  a  fact  in  common  life,  which 
he  could  not  answer,  nor  have  I  found  any  one  else  who 
could.  What  is  the  reason  that  w^omen  servants,  though 
obliged  to  be  at  the  expense  of  purchasing  their  own 
clothes,  have  much  lower  wages  than  men  servants,  to 
whom  a  great  proportion  of  that  article  is  furnished,  and 
when  in  fact  our  female  house  servants  work  much  harder 
than  the  male '  ? 

He  told  me  that  he  had  twelve  or  fourteen  times  attempt- 
ed to  keep  a  journal  of  his  life,  but  never  could  persevere  ^ 
He  advised  me  to  do  it.  '  The  great  thing  to  be  recorded, 
(said  he,)  is  the  state  of  your  own  mind  ^ ;  and  you  should 
write  down  every  thing  that  you  remember,  for  you  cannot 
judge  at  first  what  is  good  or  bad  ;  and  write  immediately 
while  the  impression  is  fresh,  for  it  will  not  be  the  same  a 
week  afterwards  *.' 

I  again  solicited  him  to  communicate  to  me  the  particu- 
lars of  his  early  life.  He  said,  '  You  shall  have  them  all  for 
twopence.  I  hope  you  shall  know  a  great  deal  more  of  me 
before  you  write  my  Life.'     He  mentioned  to  me  this  day 


'  '  When  the  efficiency  [of  men  and  women]  is  equal,  but  the  pay 
unequal,  the  only  explanation  that  can  be  given  is  custom.'  J.  S. 
Mill's  Political  Economy,  book  \\.  ch.  xiv.  5. 

*  The  day  before  he  told  Boswell  this  he  had  recorded  :— '  My  gen- 
eral resolution,  to  which  I  humbly  implore  the  help  of  God,  is  to 
methodise  my  life,  to  resist  sloth.  I  hope  from  this  time  to  keep  a 
journal.'  Pr.  and  Med.  p.  124.  Four  times  more  he  recorded  the 
same  resolution  to  keep  a  journal.  See  a7itc,  i.  501,  note  2,  and  post, 
April  14,  1775. 

*  See /£?.?/,  March  30,  177S,  where  Johnson  says: — 'A  man  loves  to 
review  his  own  mind.     That  is  the  use  of  a  diary  or  journal.' 

^  '  He  who  has  not  made  the  experiment,  or  who  is  not  accustomed 
to  require  rigorous  accuracy  from  himself,  will  scarcely  believe  how 
much  a  few  hours  take  from  certainty  of  knowledge  and  distinctness 
of  imagery. . .  .  To  this  dilatory  notation  must  be  imputed  the  false 
relations  of  travellers,  where  there  is  no  imaginable  motive  to  deceive. 
They  trusted  to  memory  what  cannot  be  trusted  safely  but  to  the  eye, 
and  told  by  guess  what  a  few  hours  before  they  had  known  with  cer- 
tainty.'   Johnson's  Works,  ix.  144. 

many 


250  No  nation  hurt  by  luxury.  [a.d.  1773. 

many  circumstances,  which  I  wrote  down  when  I  went  home, 
and  have  interwoven  in  the  former  part  of  this  narrative. 

On  Tuesday,  April  13,  he  and  Dr.  Goldsmith  and  I  dined 
at  General  Oglethorpe's.  Goldsmith  expatiated  on  the  com- 
mon topick,  that  the  race  of  our  people  was  degenerated, 
and  that  this  was  owing  to  luxury.  Johnson.  '  Sir,  in  the 
first  place,  I  doubt  the  fact  \  I  believe  there  are  as  many 
tall  men  in  England  now,  as  ever  there  were.  But,  secondly, 
supposing  the  stature  of  our  people  to  be  diminished,  that 
is  not  owing  to  luxury ;  for.  Sir,  consider  to  how  very  small 
a  proportion  of  our  people  luxury  can  reach.  Our  soldiery, 
surely,  are  not  luxurious,  who  live  on  sixpence  a  day";  and 
the  same  remark  will  apply  to  almost  all  the  other  classes. 
Luxury,  so  far  as  it  reaches  the  poor,  will  do  good  to  the 
race  of  people ;  it  will  strengthen  and  multiply  them.  Sir, 
no  nation  was  ever  hurt  by  luxury ;  for,  as  I  said  before,  it 
can  reach  but  to  a  very  few.  I  admit  that  the  great  increase 
of  commerce  and  manufactures  hurts  the  military  spirit  of 
a  people ;  because  it  produces  a  competition  for  something 

'  Goldsmith,  in  his  dedication  to  Reynolds  of  the  Deserted  Village, 
refers  no  doubt  to  Johnson's  opinion  of  luxury.  He  writes  : — '  I  know 
you  will  object  (and  indeed  sei/eral  of  our  best  and  wisest  friends  con- 
cur in  the  opinion)  that  the  depopulation  it  deplores  is  nowhere  to  be 
seen,  and  the  disorders  it  laments  are  only  to  be  found  in  the  poet's 
own  imagination. ...  In  regretting  the  depopulation  of  the  country  I 
inveigh  against  the  increase  of  our  luxuries ;  and  here  also  I  expect 
the  shout  of  modern  politicians  against  me.  For  twenty  or  thirty 
years  past  it  has  been  the  fashion  to  consider  luxury  as  one  of  the 
greatest  national  advantages.'     Sqc  post,  April  15,  1778. 

^  Johnson,  in  his  Pari.  Debates  (  Works,  x.  418),  makes  General  Han- 
dasyd  say : — '  The  whole  pay  of  a  foot  soldier  is  sixpence  a  day,  of 
which  he  is  to  pay  fourpence  to  his  landlord  for  his  diet,  or,  what  is 
very  nearly  the  same,  to  carry  fourpence  daily  to  the  market. . . .  Two- 
pence a  day  is  all  that  a  soldier  has  to  lay  out  upon  cleanliness  and 
decency,  and  with  which  he  is  likewise  to  keep  his  arms  in  order,  and 
to  supply  himself  with  some  part  of  his  clothing.  If,  Sir,  after  these 
deductions  he  can,  from  twopence  a  day,  procure  himself  the  means 
of  enjoying  a  few  happy  moments  in  the  year  with  his  companions 
over  a  cup  of  ale,  is  not  his  economy  much  more  to  be  envied  than 
his  luxury?' 

else 


Aetat.  64.]  Golds77iith  sings.  251 

else  than  martial  honours. — a  competition  for  riches.  It  also 
hurts  the  bodies  of  the  people  ;  for  you  will  observe,  there 
is  no  man  who  works  at  any  particular  trade,  but  you  may 
know  him  from  his  appearance  to  do  so.  One  part  or  other 
of  his  body  being  more  used  than  the  rest,  he  is  in  some 
degree  deformed  :  but,  Sir,  that  is  not  luxury.  A  tailor  sits 
cross-legged  ;  but  that  is  not  luxury.'  GOLDSMITH.  '  Come, 
you're  just  going  to  the  same  place  by  another  road.'  JOHN- 
SOX.  '  Nay,  Sir,  I  say  that  is  not  luxury.  Let  us  take  a  walk 
from  Charing-cross  to  White-chapel,  through,  I  suppose,  the 
greatest  series  of  shops  in  the  world  ;  what  is  there  in  any  of 
these  shops,  (if  you  except  gin-shops,)  that  can  do  any  human 
being  any  harm?'  Goldsmith.  '  Well,  Sir,  I'll  accept  your 
challenge.  The  very  next  shop  to  Northumberland-house  is 
a  pickle-shop.'  JOHNSON.  '  Well,  Sir:  do  we  not  know  that 
a  maid  can  in  one  afternoon  make  pickles  sufficient  to  serve 
a  whole  family  for  a  year?  nay,  that  five  pickle-shops  can 
serve  all  the  kingdom  ?  Besides,  Sir,  there  is  no  harm  done 
to  any  body  by  the  making  of  pickles,  or  the  eating  of 
pickles.' 

We  drank  tea  with  the  ladies ;  and  Goldsmith  sung  Tony 
Lumpkin's  song  in  his  comedy,  SJie  Stoops  to  Conquer,  and  a 
very  pretty  one,  to  an  Irish  tune ',  which  he  had  designed 
for  Miss  Hardcastle  ;  but  as  Mrs.  Bulkeley,  who  played  the 
part,  could  not  sing,  it  was  left  out.  He  afterwards  wrote 
it  down  for  me,  by  which  means  it  was  preserved,  and  now 
appears  amongst  his  poems".    Dr.  Johnson,  in  his  way  home, 

'  The  humours  of  Ballamagairy.     Boswell. 
'  '  Ah  me  I  when  shall  I  marry  me  ? 

Lovers  are  plenty ;  but  fail  to  relieve  me. 
He,  fond  youth,  that  could  carry  me, 
Offers  to  love,  but  means  to  deceive  me. 
But  I  will  rally  and  combat  the  miner : 
Not  a  look,  nor  a  smile  shall  my  passion  discover; 
She  that  gives  all  to  the  false  one  pursuing  her. 
Makes  but  a  penitent  and  loses  a  lover.' 
Boswell,  in  a  letter  published  in  Goldsmith's  Misc.  Works,  ii.  116, 
with  the  song,  says: —  The  tune  is  a  pretty  Irish  air,  called  The H  11- 
motcrs  of  Ballamagairy,  to  which,  he  told  mc,  he  found  it  very  difficult 

stopped 


252  The  family  of  Sttmrt.  [a.d.  1773. 

stopped  at  my  lodgings  in  Piccadilly,  and  sat  with  me,  drink- 
ing tea  a  second  time,  till  a  late  hour. 

I  told  him  that  Mrs.  Macaulay  said,  she  wondered  how  he 
could  reconcile  his  political  principles  with  his  moral ;  his 
notions  of  inequality  and  subordination  with  wishing  well  to 
the  happiness  of  all  mankind,  who  might  live  so  agreeably, 
had  they  all  their  portions  of  land,  and  none  to  domineer 
over  another.  JOHNSON.  'Why,  Sir,  I  reconcile  my  princi- 
ples very  well,  because  mankind  are  happier  in  a  state  of  ine- 
quality and  subordination '.  Were  they  to  be  in  this  pretty 
state  of  equality,  they  would  soon  degenerate  into  brutes  ; — 
they  would  become  Monboddo's  nation^ ; — their  tails  would 
grow.  Sir,  all  would  be  losers  were  all  to  work  for  all : — 
they  would  have  no  intellectual  improvement.  All  intel- 
lectual improvement  arises  from  leisure ;  all  leisure  arises 
from  one  working  for  another.' 

Talking  of  the  family  of  Stuart  ^  he  said,  '  It  should  seem 
that  the  family  at  present  on  the  throne  has  now  established 
as  good  a  right  as  the  former  family,  by  the  long  consent  of 
the  people ;  and  that  to  disturb  this  right  might  be  consid- 
ered as  culpable.  At  the  same  time  I  own,  that  it  is  a  very 
difficult  question,  when  considered  with  respect  to  the  house 
of  Stuart.  To  oblige  people  to  take  oaths  as  to  the  disputed 
right,  is  wrong.  I  know  not  whether  I  could  take  them  :  but 
I  do  not  blame  those  who  do.'  So  conscientious  and  so  del- 
icate was  he  upon  this  subject,  which  has  occasioned  so  much 
clamour  against  him. 

Talking  of  law  cases,  he  said,  *  The  English  reports,  in  gen- 
eral, are  very  poor :  only  the  half  of  what  has  been  said  is 
taken  down ;  and  of  that  half,  much  is  mistaken.  Where- 
as, in  Scotland,  the  arguments  on  each  side  are  deliberately 
put  in  writing,  to  be  considered  by  the  Court.     I  think  a 

to  adapt  words  ;  but  he  has  succeeded  very  happily  in  these  few  lines. 
As  I  could  sing  the  tune  and  was  fond  of  them,  he  was  so  good  as  to 
give  me  them.  I  preserve  this  little  relic  in  his  own  handwriting  with 
an  affectionate  care.' 

■  See  ante,  i.  472,  and  post,  April  7,  1776. 

^  See  ante,  ii.  85.  '  See  ante,  i.  497. 

collection 


Aetat.64.]  Histories  of  the  present  age.  253 

collection  of  your  cases  upon  subjects  of  importance,  with 
the  opinions  of  the  Judges  upon  them,  would  be  valuable.' 

On  Thursday,  April  15,  I  dined  with  him  and  Dr.  Gold- 
smith at  General  Paoli's.  We  found  here  Signer  Martinelli, 
of  Florence,  authour  of  a  History  of  England,  in  Italian, 
printed  at  London. 

I  spoke  of  Allan  Ramsay's  Gentle  Shepherd,  in  the  Scottish 
dialect,  as  the  best  pastoral  that  had  ever  been  written  ;  not 
only  abounding  with  beautiful  rural  imagery,  and  just  and 
pleasing  sentiments,  but  being  a  real  picture  of  manners ; 
and  I  offered  to  teach  Dr.  Johnson  to  understand  it.  '  No, 
Sir,  (said  he,)  I  won't  learn  it.  You  shall  retain  your  supe- 
riority by  my  not  knowing  it.' 

This  brought  on  a  question  whether  one  man  is  lessened 
by  another's  acquiring  an  equal  degree  of  knowledge  with 
him  '.  Johnson  asserted  the  afifirmative.  I  maintained  that 
the  position  might  be  true  in  those  kinds  of  knowledge 
which  produce  wisdom,  power,  and  force,  so  as  to  enable 
one  man  to  have  the  government  of  others ;  but  that  a  man 
is  not  in  any  degree  lessened  by  others  knowing  as  well  as 
he  what  ends  in  mere  pleasure  : — eating  fine  fruits,  drinking 
delicious  wines,  reading  exquisite  poetry. 

The  General  observed,  that  Martinelli  was  a  Whig.  JOHN- 
SON. '  I  am  sorry  for  it.  It  shows  the  spirit  of  the  times :  he 
is  obliged  to  temporise.'  Boswell.  '  I  rather  think,  Sir,  that 
Toryism  prevails  in  this  reign.'  JOHNSON.  '  I  know  not  why 
you  should  think  so.  Sir,  You  see  your  friend  Lord  Lyttel- 
ton^  a  nobleman,  is  obliged  in  his  History  to  write  the  most 
vulgar  Whiggism.' 

An  animated  debate  took  place  whether  Martinelli  should 
continue  his  History  of  England  to  the  present  day,  GOLD- 
SMITH. 'To  be  sure  he  should,'  JoilNSON.  'No,  Sir;  he 
would  give  great  offence.  He  would  have  to  tell  of  al- 
most   all    the    living  great    what    they   do    not   wish   told.' 

'  Sec  ajite,  ii.  194,  for  Johnson's  '  half-a-guinea's  worth  of  inferiority.' 
'  Boswell  (afttc,  i.  298)  mentions  that  he  knew  Lyttclton.     For  his 
History,  sec  ante,  ii.  43. 

Goldsmith. 


2  54  London  hospitality.  [a.d.  1773. 

Goldsmith.  '  It  may,  perhaps,  be  necessary  for  a  native  to 
be  more  cautious  ;  but  a  foreigner  who  comes  among  us  with- 
out prejudice,  may  be  considered  as  holding  the  place  of  a 
Judge,  and  may  speak  his  mind  freely.'  JOHNSON,  'Sir,  a 
foreigner,  when  he  sends  a  work  from  the  press,  ought  to  be 
on  his  guard  against  catching  the  errour  and  mistaken  en- 
thusiasm of  the  people  among  whom  he  happens  to  be.' 
Goldsmith.  '  Sir,  he  wants  only  to  sell  his  history,  and  to 
tell  truth  ;  one  an  honest,  the  other  a  laudable  motive.' 
Johnson.  'Sir,  they  are  both  laudable  motives.  It  is  laud- 
able in  a  man  to  wish  to  live  by  his  labours ;  but  he  should 
write  so  as  he  may  live  by  them,  not  so  as  he  may  be  knocked 
on  the  head.  I  would  advise  him  to  be  at  Calais  before  he 
publishes  his  history  of  the  present  age.  A  foreigner  who 
attaches  himself  to  a  political  party  in  this  country,  is  in 
the  worst  state  that  can  be  imagined :  he  is  looked  upon  as 
a  mere  intermeddler.  A  native  may  do  it  from  interest.' 
BOSWELL.  '  Or  principle.'  Goldsmith.  '  There  are  people 
who  tell  a  hundred  political  lies  every  day,  and  are  not  hurt 
by  it.  Surely,  then,  one  may  tell  truth  with  safety.'  JOHN- 
SON. '  Why,  Sir,  in  the  first  place,  he  who  tells  a  hundred 
lies  has  disarmed  the  force  of  his  lies '.  But  besides  ;  a  man 
had  rather  have  a  hundred  lies  told  of  him,  than  one  truth 
which  he  does  not  wish  should  be  told.'  GOLDSMITH.  '  For 
my  part,  I'd  tell  truth,  and  shame  the  devil.'  JOHNSON. 
'  Yes,  Sir ;  but  the  devil  will  be  angry.  I  wish  to  shame  the 
devil  as  much  as  you  do,  but  I  should  choose  to  be  out  of 
the  reach  of  his  claws.'  GOLDSMITH.  '  His  claws  can  do  you 
no  harm,  when  you  have  the  shield  of  truth.' 

It  having  been  observed  that  there  was  little  hospitality  in 
London  ; — JOHNSON.  '  Nay,  Sir,  any  man  who  has  a  name, 
or  who  has  the  power  of  pleasing,  will  be  very  generally  in- 
vited in  London.     The  man,  Sterne,  I  have  been  told,  has 


'  Johnson  has  an  interesting  paper  '  on  lying '  in  The  Adi/enturcr, 
No.  50,  which  thus  begins : — '  When  Aristotle  was  once  asked  what  a 
man  could  gain  by  uttering  falsehoods,  he  replied,  "  Not  to  be  credited 
when  he  shall  tell  the  truth.'" 

had 


Aetat.  64.]  Charles  Towns/tend.  255 

had  engagements  for  three  months '.'  GOLDSMITH.  '  And  a 
very  dull  fellow.'     JOHNSON.  '  Why,  no,  Sir'.' 

Martinelli  told  us,  that  for  several  years  he  lived  much 
with  Charles  Townshend,  and  that  he  ventured  to  tell  him 
he  was  a  bad  joker.  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir,  thus  much  I  can 
say  upon  the  subject.  One  day  he  and  a  few  more  agreed 
to  go  and  dine  in  the  country,  and  each  of  them  was  to  bring 
a  friend  in  his  carriage  with  him.  Charles  Townshend  asked 
Fitzherbert  to  go  with  him,  but  told  him,  "  You  must  find 
somebody  to  bring  you  back  :  I  can  only  carry  you  there." 
Fitzherbert  did  not  much  like  this  arrangement.  He  how- 
ever consented,  observing  sarcastically,  "  It  will  do  very  well; 
for  then  the  same  jokes  w^ill  serve  you  in  returning  as  in 
going'.'" 

An  eminent  publick  character''  being  mentioned; — JOHN- 
SON. '  I  remember  being  present  when  he  shew-ed  himself 


'  Johnson  speaks  of  the  past,  for  Sterne  had  been  dead  five  years. 
Gray  wrote  on  April  22,  1760: — 'Tristram  Shandy  is  still  a  greater 
object  of  admiration,  the  man  as  well  as  the  book.  One  is  invited  to 
dinner  where  he  dines  a  fortnight  beforehand.'  Gray's  Works,  ed. 
1858,  iii.  241. 

-  '  I  was  but  once,'  said  Johnson,  '  in  Sterne's  company,  and  then 
his  only  attempt  at  merriment  consisted  in  his  display  of  a  drawing 
too  indecently  gross  to  have  delighted  even  in  a  brothel.'  Johnson's 
Works  (1787),  xi.  214. 

^  Townshend  was  not  the  man  to  make  his  jokes  serve  twice.  Hor- 
ace Walpole  said  of  his  Champagne  Speech, — '  It  was  Garrick  writing 
and  acting  extempore  scenes  of  Congreve.'  Me7noirs  of  the  Reign  of 
George  III,  iii.  25.  Sir  G.  Colebrooke  says  : — '  When  Garrick  and  Foote 
were  present  he  took  the  lead,  and  hardly  allowed  them  an  opportu- 
nity of  shewing  their  talents  of  mimicry,  because  he  could  excel  them 
in  their  own  art.'  lb.  p.  loi,  note.  '"Perhaps,"  said  Burke,  "there 
never  arose  in  this  country,  nor  in  any  country,  a  man  of  a  more 
pointed  and  finished  wit."  '     Payne's  Burke,  i.  146. 

^  The  'eminent  public  character'  is  no  doubt  Burke,  and  the  friend, 
as  Mr.  Croker  suggests,  probably  Reynolds.  See  Boswell's  Hebrides, 
Aug.  15,  1773,  for  a  like  charge  made  by  Johnson  against  Burke.  Bos- 
well  commonly  describes  Burke  as  '  an  eminent  friend  of  ours  ;'  but  he 
could  not  do  so  as  yet,  for  he  first  met  him  fifteen  days  later.  Sccpost, 
April  30. 

to 


256  Burkes  defence  of  parties.  [a.d.  1773. 

to  be  so  corrupted,  or  at  least  something  so  different  from 
what  I  think  right,  as  to  maintain,  that  a  member  of  ParHa- 
mcnt  should  go  along  with  his  party  right  or  wrong.  Now, 
Sir,  this  is  so  remote  from  native  virtue,  from  scholastick 
virtue,  that  a  good  man  must  have  undergone  a  great  change 
before  he  can  reconcile  himself  to  such  a  doctrine.  It  is 
maintaining  that  you  may  lie  to  the  publick ;  for  you  lie 
when  you  call  that  right  which  you  think  wrong,  or  the  re- 
verse'. A  friend  of  ours,  who  is  too  much  an  echo  of  that 
gentleman,  observed,  that  a  man  who  does  not  stick  uni- 
formly to  a  party,  is  only  waiting  to  be  bought.  Why  then, 
said  I,  he  is  only  waiting  to  be  what  that  gentleman  is 
already.' 

We  talked  of  the  King's  coming  to  see  Goldsmith's  new 
play. — '  I  wish  he  would  ^'  said  Goldsmith  ;  adding,  however, 
with  an  affected  indifference, '  Not  that  it  would  do  me  the 
least  good.'  Johnson.  '  Well  then.  Sir,  let  us  say  it  would 
do  him  good,  (laughing).  No,  Sir,  this  affectation  will  not 
pass;  —  it  is  mighty  idle.  In  such  a  state  as  ours,  who 
would  not  wish  to  please  the  Chief  Magistrate?'  GOLD- 
SMITH. '  I  do  wish  to  please  him.  I  remember  a  line  in 
Dryden, — 

"And  every  poet  is  the  monarch's  friend." 

It  ought  to  be  reversed.'  JOHNSON.  '  Nay,  there  are  finer 
lines  in  Dryden  on  this  subject : — 

"For  colleges  on  bounteous  Kings  depend. 
And  never  rebel  was  to  arts  a  friend '." ' 

'  'Party,'  Burke  wrote  in  1770  {Thoughts  on  tkc  Present  Discon- 
tents), '  is  a  body  of  men  united  for  promoting  by  their  joint  endeav- 
ours the  national  interest  upon  some  particular  principle  in  which 
they  are  all  agreed.  For  my  part  I  find  it  impossible  to  conceive 
that  any  one  believes  in  his  own  politics,  or  thinks  them  to  be  of  any 
weight,  who  refuses  to  adopt  the  means  of  having  them  reduced  into 
practice.'     Payne's  Biirkc,  i.  86. 

On  May  5,  and  again  on  Nov.  10,  the  play  was  commanded  by  the 
King  and  Queen.     Prior's  Goldsmith,  ii.  394. 

'  Absalom  and  Achitophel,  part  i.  1.  872. 

General 


Aetat.  64.]  Happy  revolutions.  257 

General  Paoli  observed,  that  '  successful  rebels  might '.' 
Martinelli.  '  Happy  rebellions.'  GOLDSMITH.  '  We  have 
no  such  phrase.'  General  PaOLL  '  But  have  you  not 
the  thingf  Goldsmith.  'Yes;  all  our  happy  revolutions. 
They  have  hurt  our  constitution,  and  will  hurt  it,  till  we 
mend  it  by  another  happy  revolution.'  I  never  before 
discovered  that  my  friend  Goldsmith  had  so  much  of  the 
old  prejudice  in  him. 

General  Paoli,  talking  of  Goldsmith's  new  play,  said,'// 
a  fait  un  compliment  trcs  gracietix  a  7inc  ccrtaine  grande 
dame;'  meaning  a  duchess  of  the  first  rank'. 

I  expressed  a  doubt  whether  Goldsmith  intended  it,  in 
order  that  I  might  hear  the  truth  from  himself.  It,  per- 
haps, was  not  quite  fair  to  endeavour  to  bring  him  to  a  con- 
fession, as  he  might  not  wish  to  avow  positively  his  taking 
part  against  the  Court.  He  smiled  and  hesitated.  The 
General  at  once  relieved  him,  by  this  beautiful  image:  'Mon- 
sieur Goldsmith  est  comme  la  mer,  qui  jette  des  perles  et  beau- 
coup  d'autres  belie  choses,  sans  sen  appercevoir!  Goldsmith. 
'  Trcs  bien  dit  et  trcs  elegammcnt.' 

A  person  was  mentioned,  who  it  was  said  could  take  down 
in  short  hand  the  speeches  in  Parliament  with  perfect  exact- 
ness. Johnson.  '  Sir,  it  is  impossible.  I  remember  one, 
Aneel,  who    came    to    me    to    write    for  him  a  Preface    or 

'  Paoli  perhaps  was  thinking  of  himself.  While  he  was  .still  'the 
successful  rebel '  in  Corsica,  he  had  said  to  Boswell : — '  The  arts  and 
sciences  are  like  dress  and  ornament.  You  cannot  expect  them  from 
us  for  some  time.  But  come  back  twenty  or  thirty  years  hence,  and 
we'll  shew  you  arts  and  sciences.'     Boswell's  Corsica,  p.  172. 

*  '  The  Duke  of  Cumberland  had  been  forbidden  the  Court  on  his 
marriage  with  Mrs.  Horton.  a  year  before;  but  on  the  Duke  of  Glouces- 
ter's avowal  of  his  marriage  with  Lady  VValdcgrave,  the  King's  in- 
dignation found  vent  in  the  Royal  Marriage  Act:  which  was  hotly 
opposed  by  the  Whigs  as  an  edict  of  tyranny.  Goldsmith  (perhaps 
for  Burke's  sake)  helped  to  make  it  unpopular  with  the  people  :  "  We'll 
go  to  France,"  says  Hastings  to  Miss  Neville,  "  for  there,  even  among 
slaves,  the  laws  of  marriage  are  respected."  Said  on  the  first  night; 
this  had  directed  repeated  cheering  to  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  who 
sat  in  one  of  the  boxes.'  Forster's  Goldsmith,  ii.  358.  See  ante,  ii.  175. 
II. — 17  Dedication 


258  Hermes  Harris.  [a.d.  1773. 

Dedication  to  a  book  upon  short  hand  ',  and  he  professed 
to  write  as  fast  as  a  man  could  speak.  In  order  to  try  him, 
I  took  down  a  book,  and  read  while  he  wrote;  and  I  fa- 
voured him,  for  I  read  more  deliberately  than  usual.  I  had 
proceeded  but  a  very  little  way,  when  he  begged  I  would 
desist,  for  he  could  not  follow  me".'  Hearing  now  for  the 
first  time  of  this  Preface  or  Dedication,  I  said,  '  What  an 
expense.  Sir,  do  you  put  us  to  in  buying  books,  to  which 
you  have  written  Prefaces  or  Dedications.'  JOHNSON.  '  Why 
I  have  dedicated  to  the  Royal  family  all  round  ;  that  is  to 
say,  to  the  last  generation  of  the  Royal  family  \'  GOLD- 
SMITH. '  And  perhaps,  Sir,  not  one  sentence  of  wit  in  a 
whole  Dedication.'  JOHNSON.  'Perhaps  not,  Sir.'  BOS- 
WELL.  '  What  then  is.  the  reason  for  applying  to  a  partic- 
ular person  to  do  that  which  any  one  may  do  as  well?' 
Johnson.  *  Why,  Sir,  one  man  has  greater  readiness  at  do- 
ing it  than  another.' 

I   spoke   of   Mr.  Harris  \  of    Salisbury,  as    being   a  very 

'  Stenography,  by  John  Angell,  1758. 

^  Se^e  post,  April  10,  1778.  ^  See  anfe,  ii.  2. 

^  James  Harris,  father  of  the  first  Earl  of  Malmesbury,  born  in  1709, 
died  1780.  Two  years  later  Boswell  wrote  to  Temple  :  '  I  am  invited 
to  a  dinner  at  Mr.  Cambridge's  (for  the  dinner,  see  post,  April  18,  1775), 
where  are  to  be  Reynolds,  Johnson,  and  Hermes  Harris.  "  Do  you 
think  so  ?"  said  he.  "  Most  certainly,  said  /."  Do  you  remember  how 
I  used  to  laugh  at  his  style  when  we  were  in  the  Temple?  He  thinks 
himself  an  ancient  Greek  from  these  little  peculiarities,  as  the  imita- 
tors of  Shakspeare,  whom  the  Spectator  mentions,  thought  they  had 
done  wonderfully  when  they  had  produced  a  line  similar : — 

"  And  so,  good  morrow  to  ye,  good  Master  Lieutenant." ' 
Letters  of  Boswell,  p.  187.  It  is  not  in  The  Spectator,  but  in  Martiniis 
Scriblerus,  ch.  ix.  (Swift's  Works,  1803,  xxiii.  53),  that  the  imitators  of 
Shakspeare  are  ridiculed,  Harris  got  his  name  of  Hermes  from  his 
Hermes,  or  a  Philosophical  Inquiry  concerning  Universal  Grafnmar. 
Cradock  {Memoirs,  i.  208)  says  that, '  A  gentleman  applied  to  his  friend 
to  lend  him  some  amusing  book,  and  he  recommended  Harris's  Her- 
mes. On  returning  it,  the  other  asked  how  he  had  been  entertained. 
"  Not  much,"  he  replied  ;  "  he  thought  that  all  these  imitations  of  Tris- 
tram Shandy  fell  far  short  of  the  original."  '  See  post,  April  7,  1778, 
and  ^oswcW's  Hebrides,  Nov.  3,  1773. 

learned 


Aetat.  64.]  A  printer  s  coach.  259 

learned  man,  and  in  particular  an  eminent  Grecian.  JOHN- 
SON. '  I  am  not  sure  of  that.  His  friends  give  him  out  as 
such,  but  I  know  not  who  of  his  friends  are  able  to  judge 
of  it.'  Goldsmith.  'He  is  what  is  much  better:  he  is  a 
worthy  humane  man.'  Johnson.  '  Nay,  Sir,  that  is  not  to 
the  purpose  of  our  argument*:  that  will  as  much  prove 
that  he  can  play  upon  the  fiddle  as  well  as  Giardini,  as  that 
he  is  an  eminent  Grecian.'  GOLDSMITH.  '  The  greatest 
musical  performers  have  but  small  emoluments.  Giardini, 
I  am  told,  does  not  get  above  seven  hundred  a  year.'  JOHN- 
SON. '  That  is  indeed  but  little  for  a  man  to  get,  who  does 
best  that  which  so  many  endeavour  to  do.  There  is  nothing, 
I  think,  in  which  the  power  of  art  is  shewn  so  much  as  in 
playing  on  the  fiddle.  In  all  other  things  we  can  do  some- 
thing at  first.  Any  man  will  forge  a  bar  of  iron,  if  you  give 
him  a  hammer ;  not  so  well  as  a  smith,  but  tolerably.  A 
man  will  saw  a  piece  of  wood,  and  make  a  box,  though  a 
clumsy  one  ;  but  give  him  a  fiddle  and  a  fiddle-stick,  and  he 
can  do  nothing.' 

On  Monday,  April  19,  he  called  on  me  with  Mrs.  Will- 
iams, in  Mr.  Strahan's  coach,  and  carried  me  out  to  dine 
with  Mr.  Elphinston  ^  at  his  academy  at  Kensington.  A 
printer  having  acquired  a  fortune  sufficient  to  keep  his 
coach,  was  a  good  topick  for  the  credit  of  literature^  Mrs, 
Williams  said,  that  another  printer,  Mr.  Hamilton,  had  not 

'  Johnson  suffers,  in  Cowper's  epitaph  on  him,  from  the  same  kind 
of  praise  as  Goldsmith  gives  Harris  ; — 

'  Whose  verse  may  claim,  grave,  masculine  and  strong, 
Superior  praise  to  the  mere  poet's  song.' 

Cowper's  Works,\.  119. 
"  See  a7iic,  i.  243. 

^  Cave  set  up  his  coach  about  thirty  years  earlier  (luite,  i.  175,  note 
3j.  Dr.  Franklin  {Memoirs,  iii.  172)  wrote  to  Mr.  Strahan  in  1784: — 
'  I  remember  your  observing  once  to  me,  as  we  sat  together  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  that  no  two  journeymen  printers  within  your 
knowledge  had  met  with  such  success  in  the  world  as  ourselves.  You 
were  then  at  the  head  of  your  profession,  and  soon  afterwards  became 
a  member  of  parliament.  I  was  an  agent  for  a  few  provinces,  and  now 
act  for  them  all.' 

waited 


26o  Garrick's  flatterers.  [a.d.  1773. 

waited  so  long  as  Mr,  Strahan,  but  had  kept  his  coach  sev- 
eral years  sooner'.  JOHNSON.  *  He  was  in  the  right.  Life 
is  short.  The  sooner  that  a  man  begins  to  enjoy  his 
wealth  the  better.' 

Mr.  Elphinston  talked  of  a  new  book  that  was  much  ad- 
mired, and  asked  Dr.  Johnson  if  he  had  read  it.  JOHNSON. 
'  I  have  looked  into  it.'  '  What,  (said  Elphinston,)  have 
you  not  read  it  through?'  Johnson,  offended  at  being  thus 
pressed,  and  so  obliged  to  own  his  cursory  mode  of  read- 
ing, answered  tartly, '  No,  Sir,  diO you  read  books  through'?' 

He  this  day  again  defended  duelling  ^  and  put  his  argu- 
ment upon  what  I  have  ever  thought  the  most  solid  basis ; 
that  if  publick  war  be  allowed  to  be  consistent  with  moral- 
ity, private  war  must  be  equally  so.  Indeed  we  may  ob- 
serve what  strained  arguments  are  used,  to  reconcile  war 
with  the  Christian  religion.  But,  in  my  opinion,  it  is  ex- 
ceedingly clear  that  duelling,  having  better  reasons  for  its 
barbarous  violence,  is  more  justifiable  than  war,  in  which 
thousands  go  forth  without  any  cause  of  personal  quarrel, 
and  massacre  each  other. 

On  Wednesday,  April  21,  I  dined  with  him  at  Mr.  Thrale's. 
A  gentleman^  attacked  Garrick  for  being  vain.  JOHNSON. 
'  No  wonder,  Sir,  that  he  is  vain  ;  a  man  who  is  perpetually 
flattered  in  every  mode  that  can  be  conceived.  So  many 
bellows  have  blown  the  fire,  that  one  wonders  he  is  not  by 
this  time  become  a  cinder.'  BOSWELL.  '  And  such  bellows 
too.     Lord  Mansfield  with  his  cheeks  like  to  burst :   Lord 

'  '  Hamilton  made  a  large  fortune  out  of  Smollett's  History.'  Fors- 
ter's  Goldsmith,  i.  149.  He  was  also  the  proprietor  of  the  Critical  Re- 
7new. 

"^  See  a7ite,  i.  82. 

^  See  ante,  ii.  206,  and  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Sept.  19,  1773.  Horace 
Walpole  wrote  of  the  year  1773: — 'The  rage  of  duelling  had  of  late 
much  revived,  especially  in  Ireland,  and  many  attempts  were  made  in 
print  and  on  the  stage  to  curb  so  horrid  and  absurd  a  practice.'  Jour- 
nal of  the  Reign  of  George  HI,  i.  282. 

*  Very  likely  Boswell.  S&e  post,  April  10,  1778,  where  he  says: — 'I 
slily  introduced  Mr.  Garrick's  fame,  and  his  assuming  the  airs  of  a 
great  man.' 

Chatham 


Aetat.  G4.]  Gavrick' s  flatterers,  261 

Chatham  like  an  ^olus.  I  have  read  such  notes  from  them 
to  him,  as  were  enough  to  turn  his  head  '.'  JOHNSON.  '  True. 
When  he  whom  every  body  else  flatters,  flatters  me,  I  then 
am  truely  happy.'  Mrs.  Thrale.  '  The  sentiment  is  in  Con- 
greve,  I  think.'  JOHNSON.  'Yes,  Madam,  in  TJie  Way  of  the 
World: 

"  If  there's  delight  in  love,  'tis  when  I  see 
That  heart  which  others  bleed  for,  bleed  for  me^" 

No,  Sir,  I  should  not  be  surprised  though  Garrick  chained 
the  ocean,  and  lashed  the  winds.'  BOSWELL.  '  Should  it  not 
be,  Sir,  lashed  the  ocean  and  chained  the  winds?'  JOHNSON. 
'  No,  Sir,  recollect  the  original : 

"/«  Conuji  at  que  Eiinim   solitus  scBvire  flagellis 
Barbarus,  ^olio  nunquam  hoc  in  carccre  passes^ 
Ipsum  compedibus  qui  vinxerat  Ennosigmim^ .'' 

This  does  very  well,  when  both  the  winds  and  the  sea  are 
personified,  and  mentioned  by  their  mythological  names,  as 
in  Juvenal ;  but  when  they  are  mentioned  in  plain  language, 
the  application  of  the  epithets  suggested  by  me,  is  the  most 
obvious ;  and  accordingly  my  friend  himself,  in  his  imitation 
of  the  passage  which  describes  Xerxes,  has 

"The  waves  he  lashes,  and  enchains  the  wind."' 

'  In  the  Garrick  Corrcs.  up  to  this  date  there  is  no  letter  from  Lord 
Mansfield  which  answers  Boswell's  descriptions.  To  Lord  Chatham 
Garrick  had  addressed  some  verses  from  Mount  Edgecumbe.  Chat- 
ham, on  April  3,  1772,  sent  verses  in  return,  and  wrote  :—' You  have 
kindly  settled  upon  me  a  lasting  species  of  property  I  never  dreamed 
of  in  that  enchanting  place ;  a  far  more  able  conveyancer  than  any  in 
Chancery-land.'     Ib.'\.\z^C). 

^  '  Then  I  alone  the  conquest  prize, 

When  I  insult  a  rival's  eyes : 
If  there's,  &c.'  Act  iii.  sc.  12. 

*  '  But  how  did  he  return,  this  haughty  brave, 

Who  whipt  the  winds,  and  made  the  sea  his  slave.' 
(Though  Neptune  took  unkindly  to  be  bound 
And  Euros  never  such  hard  usage  found 
In  his  ALohan  prison  under  ground).' 

Drydcn,/u7'cnn/,  X.  180. 

The 


262  Suicide.  [a.d.  1778. 

The  modes  of  living  in  different  countries,  and  the  various 
views  with  which  men  travel  in  quest  of  new  scenes,  having 
been  talked  of,  a  learned  gentleman '  who  holds  a  consider- 
able office  in  the  law,  expatiated  on  the  happiness  of  a  sav- 
age life '^j  and  mentioned  an  instance  of  an  officer  who  had 
actually  lived  for  some  time  in  the  wilds  of  America,  of 
whom,  when  in  that  state,  he  quoted  this  reflection  with  an 
air  of  admiration,  as  if  it  had  been  deeply  philosophical : 
'  Here  am  I,  free  and  unrestrained,  amidst  the  rude  magnif- 
icence of  Nature,  with  this  Indian  woman  by  my  side,  and 
this  gun  with  which  I  can  procure  food  when  I  want  it : 
what  more  can  be  desired  for  human  happiness?'  It  did 
not  require  much  sagacity  to  foresee  that  such  a  sentiment 
would  not  be  permitted  to  pass  without  due  animadversion. 
Johnson.  '  Do  not  allow  yourself.  Sir,  to  be  imposed  upon 
by  such  gross  absurdity.  It  is  sad  stuff;  it  is  brutish.  If 
a  bull  could  speak,  he  might  as  well  exclaim, — Here  am  I 
with  this  cow  and  this  grass ;  what  being  can  enjoy  greater 
felicity  ?' 

We  talked  of  the  melancholy  end  of  a  gentleman '  who 
had  destroyed  himself.  Johnson.  '  It  was  owing  to  im- 
aginary difficulties  in  his  affairs,  which,  had  he  talked  with 
any  friend,  would  soon  have  vanished.'  BOSWELL.  '  Do  you 
think.  Sir,  that  all  who  commit  suicide  are  mad?'  JOHN- 
son.  '  Sir,  they  are  often  not  universally  disordered  in  their 
intellects,  but  one  passion  presses  so  upon  them,  that  they 
yield  to  it,  and  commit  suicide,  as  a  passionate  man  will  stab 

'  Most  likely  Mr.  Pepys,  a  Master  in  Chancery,  whom  Johnson  more 
than  once  roughly  attacked  at  Streatham.  St&posi,  April  i,  I78i,and 
Mme.  D'Arblay's  Diary,  ii.  46. 

'"  See  atitc,  ii.  83. 

^  'Jan.  5,  1772.  Poor  Mr.  Fitzherbert  hanged  himself  on  Wednes- 
day. He  went  to  see  the  convicts  executed  that  morning ;  and  from 
thence  in  his  boots  to  his  son,  having  sent  his  groom  out  of  the  way. 
At  three  his  son  said.  Sir,  you  are  to  dine  at  Mr.  Buller's ;  it  is  time 
for  you  to  go  home  and  dress.  He  went  to  his  own  stable  and  hanged 
himself  with  a  bridle.  They  say  his  circumstances  were  in  great  dis- 
order.' Horace  Walpole's  Letters,  v.  362.  See  ante,  i.  96,  and  post, 
Sept.  15,  1777. 

another.' 


Aetat.  64.]  The  Douglas  Cause.  263 

another.'  He  added,  '  I  have  often  thought,  that  after  a 
man  has  taken  the  rcsokition  to  kill  himself,  it  is  not  cour- 
age in  him  to  do  any  thing,  however  desperate,  because  he 
has  nothing  to  fear.'  GOLDSMITH.  '  I  don't  see  that.'  JOHN- 
SON. '  Nay,  but  my  dear  Sir,  why  should  not  you  see  what 
every  one  else  sees?'  Goldsmith.  '  It  is  for  fear  of  some- 
thing that  he  has  resolved  to  kill  himself ;  and  will  not  that 
timid  disposition  restrain  him  ?'  JOHNSON.  '  It  does  not 
signify  that  the  fear  of  something  made  him  resolve ;  it  is 
upon  the  state  of  his  mind,  after  the  resolution  is  taken,  that 
I  argue.  Suppose  a  man,  either  from  fear,  or  pride,  or  con- 
science, or  whatever  motive,  has  resolved  to  kill  himself ; 
when  once  the  resolution  is  taken,  he  has  nothing  to  fear. 
He  may  then  go  and  take  the  King  of  Prussia  by  the  nose, 
at  the  head  of  his  army.  He  cannot  fear  the  rack,  who  is 
resolved  to  kill  himself.  When  Eustace  Budgel '  was  walk- 
ing down  to  the  Thames,  determined  to  drown  himself,  he 
might,  if  he  pleased,  without  any  apprehension  of  danger, 
have  turned  aside,  and  first  set  fire  to  St.  James's  palace.' 

On  Tuesday,  April  27,  Mr.  Beauclerk  and  I  called  on  him 
in  the  morning.  As  we  walked  up  Johnson's-court,  I  said, 
'  I  have  a  veneration  for  this  court ;'  and  was  glad  to  find 
that  Beauclerk  had  the  same  reverential  enthusiasm  ^  We 
found  him  alone.  We  talked  of  Mr.  Andrew  Stuart's  ele- 
gant and  plausible  Letters  to  Lord  Mansfield ' :  a  copy  of 
which  had  been  sent  by  the  authour  to  Dr.  Johnson.  JOHN- 
SON. '  They  have  not  answered  the  end.     They  have  not 

'  Boswell,  in  his  Hebrides  (Aug.  i8,  1773),  says  that, '  Budgel  was  ac- 
cused of  forging  a  will  [Dr.  Tindal's]  and  sunk  himself  in  the  Thames, 
before  the  trial  of  its  authenticity  came  on.'  Pope,  speaking  of  him- 
self, says  that  he — 

'  Let  Budgel  charge  low  Grub-street  on  his  quill, 
And  write  whatc'cr  he  plcas'd,  except  his  will.' 

Prol(i(^tic  to  the  Sait'res,  1.  378. 
Budgel  drowned  himself  on  May  4,  1737,  more  than  two  years  after 
the  publication  of  this  Prologue.     Gent.  Maj^.vW.  2,1s-     Perhaps  the 
verse  is  an  interpolation  in  a  later  edition.     See. post,  April  26,  1776. 
*  Sec  post,  March  15,  1776. 

"  On  the  Douglas  Cause.     Sec  a/ite,  ii.  57,  and  post,  March  26,  1776. 

been 


264  The  Douglas  Cause.  [a.d.  1773. 

been  talked  of ;  I  have  never  heard  of  them.  This  is  owing 
to  their  not  being  sold.  People  seldom  read  a  book  which 
is  given  to  them  ;  and  few  are  given.  The  way  to  spread  a 
work  is  to  sell  it  at  a  low  price.  No  man  will  send  to  buy  a 
thing  that  costs  even  sixpence,  without  an  intention  to  read 
it.'  BOSWELL.  '  May  it  not  be  doubted,  Sir,  whether  it  be 
proper  to  publish  letters,  arraigning  the  ultimate  decision  of 
an  important  cause  by  the  supreme  judicature  of  the  nation?' 
Johnson.  '  No,  Sir,  I  do  not  think  it  was  wrong  to  publish 
these  letters.  If  they  are  thought  to  do  harm,  why  not  an- 
swer them  ?  But  they  will  do  no  harm  ;  if  Mr.  Douglas  be 
indeed  the  son  of  Lady  Jane,  he  cannot  be  hurt :  if  he  be  not 
her  son,  and  yet  has  the  great  estate  of  the  family  of  Doug- 
las, he  may  well  submit  to  have  a  pamphlet  against  him  by 
Andrew  Stuart.  Sir,  I  think  such  a  publication  does  good, 
as  it  does  good  to  show  us  the  possibilities  of  human  life. 
And,  Sir,  you  will  not  say  that  the  Douglas  cause  was  a  cause 
of  easy  decision,  when  it  divided  your  Court  as  much  as  it 
could  do,  to  be  determined  at  all.  When  your  Judges  were 
seven  and  seven,  the  casting  vote  of  the  President  must  be 
given  on  one  side  or  other :  no  matter,  for  my  argument,  on 
which  ;  one  or  the  other  must  be  taken  :  as  when  I  am  to 
move,  there  is  no  matter  which  leg  I  move  first.  And  then, 
Sir,  it  was  otherwise  determined  here.  No,  Sir,  a  more  du- 
bious determination  of  any  question  cannot  be  imagined '.' 

'  1  regretted  that  Dr.  Johnson  never  took  the  trouble  to  study  a 
question  which  interested  nations.  He  would  not  even  read  a  pam- 
phlet which  I  wrote  upon  it,  entitled  The  Essence  of  the  Douglas  Cause  ; 
which,  I  have  reason  to  flatter  myself,  had  considerable  effect  in  favour 
of  Mr.  Douglas  ;  of  whose  legitimate  filiation  I  was  then,  and  am  still, 
firmly  convinced.  Let  me  add,  that  no  fact  can  be  more  respectably 
ascertained,  than  by  the  judgement  of  the  most  august  tribunal  in  the 
world;  a  judgement,  in  which  Lord  Mansfield  and  Lord  Camden 
united  in  1769,  and  from  which  only  five  of  a  numerous  body  entered 
a  protest.  Boswell.  Boswell,  in  his  Hebrides,  records  on  Oct.  26, 
1773: — 'Dr.  Johnson  roused  my  zeal  so  much  that  I  took  the  liberty 
to  tell  him  that  he  knew  nothing  of  the  [Douglas]  Cause.'  Lord 
Shelburne  says  : — '  I  conceived  such  a  prejudice  upon  the  sight  of  the 
present  Lord  Douglas's  face  and  figure,  that  I  could  not  allow  myself 

He 


Aetat.  G4.]       Goldsmitk  at  the  ga7ne  of  jokes.  265 

He  said,  '  Goldsmith  should  not  be  for  ever  attempting  to 
shine  in  conversation :  he  has  not  temper  for  it,  he  is  so  much 
mortified  when  he  fails.  Sir,  a  game  of  jokes  is  composed 
partly  of  skill,  partly  of  chance,  a  man  may  be  beat  at  times 
by  one  who  has  not  the  tenth  part  of  his  wit.  Now  Gold- 
smith's putting  himself  against  another,  is  like  a  man  laying 
a  hundred  to  one  who  cannot  spare  the  hundred.  It  is  not 
worth  a  man's  while.  A  man  should  not  lay  a  hundred  to 
one,  unless  he  can  easily  spare  it,  though  he  has  a  hundred 
chances  for  him  :  he  can  get  but  a  guinea,  and  he  may  lose 
a  hundred.  Goldsmith  is  in  this  state.  When  he  contends, 
if  he  gets  the  better,  it  is  a  very  little  addition  to  a  man  of 
his  literary  reputation :  if  he  does  not  get  the  better,  he  is 
miserably  vexed.' 

Johnson's  own  superlative  powers  of  wit  set  him  above 
any  risk  of  such  uneasiness.  Garrick  had  remarked  to  me 
of  him,  a  few  days  before,  *  Rabelais  and  all  other  wits  are 
nothing  compared  with  him.  You  may  be  diverted  by  them  ; 
but  Johnson  gives  you  a  forcible  hug,  and  shakes  laughter 
out  of  you,  whether  you  will  or  no.' 

Goldsmith,  however,  was  often  very  fortunate  in  his  witty 
contests,  even  when  he  entered  the  lists  with  Johnson  him- 
self. Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  was  in  company  with  them  one 
day,  when  Goldsmith  said,  that  he  thought  he  could  write  a 
good  fable,  mentioned  the  simplicity  which  that  kind  of  com 
position  requires,  and  observed,  that  in  most  fables  the  ani- 
mals introduced  seldom  talk  in  character.  '  For  instance, 
(said  he,)  the  fable   of  the  little  fishes,  who  saw  birds  fly 

to  vote  in  this  cause.  If  ever  I  saw  a  Frenchman,  he  is  one.'  Fitz- 
maurice's  S/w/diirJir,  i.  lo.  Hume  '  was  struck,'  he  writes,  'with  a  very 
sensible  indignation  at  the  decision.  The  Cause,  though  not  in  the 
least  intricate,  is  so  complicated  that  it  never  will  be  reviewed  by  the 
public,  who  are  besides  perfectly  pleased  with  the  sentence ;  being 
swayed  by  compassion  and  a  few  popular  topics.  To  one  who  under- 
stands the  Cause  as  I  do,  nothing  could  appear  more  scandalous  than 
the  pleadings  of  the  two  law  lords.'  J.  H.  Burton's  Ilmtic,  ii.  423.  In 
Campbell's  Chancellors,  \.  iY)\,^n  account  is  given  of  a  duel  between 
Stuart  and  Thurlow  that  arose  out  of  this  suit. 

over 


266  Dogs  a7id  butchers.  [a.d.  1773. 

over  their  heads,  and  envying  them,  petitioned  Jupiter  to 
be  changed  into  birds.  The  skill,  (continued  he,)  consists  in 
making  them  talk  like  little  fishes.'  While  he  indulged  him- 
self in  this  fanciful  reverie,  he  observed  Johnson  shaking  his 
sides,  and  laughing.  Upon  which  he  smartly  proceeded, 
'  Why,  Dr.  Johnson,  this  is  not  so  easy  as  you  seem  to  think ; 
for  if  you  were  to  make  little  fishes  talk,  they  would  talk  like 
WHALES.' 

Johnson,  though  remarkable  for  his  great  variety  of  com- 
position, never  exercised  his  talents  in  fable,  except  we  allow 
his  beautiful  tale'  published  in  Mrs.  Williams's  J//i"(:r//c2';//r.y" 
to  be  of  that  species.  I  have,  however,  found  among  his 
manuscript  collections  the  following  sketch  of  one : 

'  Glow-worm  ^  lying  in  the  garden  saw  a  candle  in  a  neighbour- 
ing palace, — and  complained  of  the  littleness  of  his  own  light ; — 
another  observed — wait  a  little  ; — soon  dark, — have  outlasted  -koW 
[many]  of  these  glaring  lights  which  are  only  brighter  as  they 
haste  to  nothing.' 

On  Thursday,  April  29,  I  dined  with  him  at  General  Ogle- 
thorpe's, where  were  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  Mr.  Langton,  Dr. 
Goldsmith,  and  Mr.  Thrale.  I  was  very  desirous  to  get  Dr. 
Johnson  absolutely  fixed  in  his  resolution  to  go  with  me  to 
the  Hebrides  this  year ;  and  I  told  him  that  I  had  received 
a  letter  from  Dr.  Robertson  the  historian,  upon  the  subject, 
with  which  he  was  much  pleased  ;  and  now  talked  in  such 
a  manner  of  his  long-intended  tour,  that  I  was  satisfied  he 
meant  to  fulfil  his  engagement. 

The  custom  of  eating  dogs  at  Otaheite  being  mentioned. 
Goldsmith  observed,  that  this  was  also  a  custom  in  China ; 
that  a  dog-butcher  is  as  common  there  as  any  other  butcher; 
and  that  when  he  walks  abroad  all  the  dogs  fall  on  him. 
Johnson.  '  That  is  not  owing  to  his  killing  dogs.  Sir.  I 
remember  a  butcher  at  Lichfield,  whom  a  dog  that  was  in 

'  The  Fountains.     Works,  ix.  176.  °  See  anfe,  ii.  29. 

*  It  has  already  been  observed  {a/ite,  ii.63),  that  one  of  his  first  Es- 
says was  a  Latin  Poem  on  a  glow-worm  ;  but  whether  it  be  any  where 
extant,  has  not  been  ascertained.     Malone. 

the 


Aetat.  G4.]  David  Mallet.  267 

the  house  where  I  Hv^ed,  always  attacked.  It  is  the  smell  of 
carnage  which  provokes  this,  let  the  animals  he  has  killed  be 
what  they  may.'  GOLDSMITH.  '  Yes,  there  is  a  general  ab- 
horrence in  animals  at  the  signs  of  massacre.  If  you  put  a 
tub  full  of  blood  into  a  stable,  the  horses  are  like  to  go  mad.' 
JOHXSOX.  '  I  doubt  that.'  GOLDSMITH.  '  Nay,  Sir,  it  is  a 
fact  well  authenticated.'  Thrale.  '  You  had  better  prove 
it  before  you  put  it  into  your  book  on  natural  history.  You 
may  do  it  in  my  stable  if  you  will.'  JOHNSON.  '  Nay,  Sir,  I 
would  not  have  him  prove  it.  If  he  is  content  to  take  his 
information  from  others,  he  may  get  through  his  book  with 
little  trouble,  and  without  much  endangering  his  reputation. 
But  if  he  makes  experiments  for  so  comprehensive  a  book 
as  his,  there  would  be  no  end  to  them  ;  his  erroneous  asser- 
tions would  then  fall  upon  himself,  and  he  might  be  blamed 
for  not  having  made  experiments  as  to  every  particular.' 

The  character  of  Mallet  having  been  introduced,  and 
spoken  of  slightingly  by  Goldsmith;  JOHNSON.  'Why,  Sir, 
Mallet  had  talents  enough  to  keep  his  literary  reputation 
alive  as  long  as  he  himself  lived' ;  and  that,  let  me  tell  you, 
is  a  good  deal.'  GOLDSMITH.  '  But  I  cannot  agree  that  it 
was  so.  His  literary  reputation  was  dead  long  before  his 
natural  death.  I  consider  an  authour's  literary  reputation 
to  be  alive  only  while  his  name  will  ensure  a  good  price 
for  his  copy  from  the  booksellers.  I  will  get  you,  (to  John- 
son,) a  hundred  guineas  for  any  thing  whatever  that  you 
shall  write,  if  you  put  your  name  to  it^' 

Dr.  Goldsmith's  new  play,  SJie  Stoops  to  Conquer,  being 
mentioned ;  JOHNSON.  '  I  know  of  no  comedy  for  many 
years  that   has  so  much  exhilarated  an  audience,  that  has 

'  '  Mallet's  works  are  such  as  a  writer,  bustling  in  the  world,  shew- 
ing himself  in  publick,  and  emerging  occasionally  from  time  to  time 
into  notice,  might  keep  alive  by  his  personal  influence ;  but  which, 
conveying  little  information  and  giving  no  great  pleasure,  must  soon 
give  way,  as  the  succession  of  things  produces  new  topicks  of  conver- 
sation and  other  modes  of  amusement.'     Johnson's  IVor/cs,  viii.  468. 

^  Johnson  made  less  money,  because  he  never 'traded  '  on  his  repu- 
tation.    When  he  had  made  his  name,  he  almost  ceased  to  write. 

answered 


268  Garrick's  compliment  to  the  Queen,    [a.d.  1775. 

answered  so  much  the  great  end   of  comedy  —  making  an 
audience  merry '.' 

Goldsmith  having  said,  that  Garrick's  comphment  to  the 
Queen,  which  he  introduced  into  the  play  of  The  Chances'^, 
which  he  had  altered  and  revised  this  year,  w^as  mean  and 
gross  flattery; — JOHNSON.  'Why,  Sir,  I  would  not  write,  I 
would  not  give  solemnly  under  my  hand,  a  character  beyond 
what  I  thought  really  true ;  but  a  speech  on  the  stage,  let 
it  flatter  ever  so  extravagantly,  is  formular'.  It  has  always 
been  formular  to  flatter  Kings  and  Queens  ;  so  much  so, 
that  even  in  our  church-service  we  have  "  our  most  religious 
King,"  used  indiscriminately,  whoever  is  King.  Nay,  they 
even  flatter  themselves ; — "  we  have  been  graciously  pleased 
to  grant."  No  modern  flattery,  however,  is  so  gross  as 
that  of  the  Augustan  age,  where  the  Emperour  was  deified. 
"■  Prczsens Divus  Jiabebitur  Aiigiistiis^y    And  as  to  meanness, 

*  '  May  27,  1773.  Dr.  Goldsmith  has  written  a  comedy — no,  it  is  the 
lowest  of  all  farces.  It  is  not  the  subject  I  condemn,  though  very 
vulgar,  but  the  execution.  The  drift  tends  to  no  moral,  no  edification 
of  any  kind.  The  situations,  however,  are  well  imagined,  and  make 
one  laugh,  in  spite  of  the  grossness  of  the  dialogue,  the  forced  witti- 
cisms, and  total  improbability  of  the  whole  plan  and  conduct.  But 
what  disgusts  me  most  is,  that  though  the  characters  are  very  low, 
and  aim  at  low  humour,  not  one  of  them  says  a  sentence  that  is  natu- 
ral or  marks  any  character  at  all.  It  is  set  up  in  opposition  to  senti- 
mental comedy,  and  is  as  bad  as  the  worst  of  them.'  Horace  Walpole's 
Letters,  v.  467.  Northcote  {Life  of  Reynolds,  i.  2S6)  says  that  Goldsmith 
gave  him  an  order  to  see  this  comedy.  '  The  next  time  I  saw  him,  he 
inquired  of  me  what  my  opinion  was  of  it.  I  told  him  that  I  would 
not  presume  to  be  a  judge  of  its  merits.  He  asked,  "  Did  it  make  you 
laugh  ?"  I  answered,  "  Exceedingly."  "  Then,"  said  the  Doctor,  "that 
is  all  I  require."  ' 

*  Garrick  brought  out  his  revised  version  of  this  play  by  Beaumont 
and  Fletcher  in  1754-5.  Murphy's  Garrick,  p.  170.  The  comphment 
is  in  a  speech  by  Don  Juan,  act.  v.  sc.  2  : — '  Ay,  but  when  things  are  at 
the  worst,  they'll  mend  ;  example  does  everything,  and  the  fair  sex  will 
certainly  grow  better,  whenever  the  greatest  is  the  best  woman  in  the 
kingdom.' 

'  Formidar  is  not  in  Johnson's  Dictionary. 

*  '  On  earth,  a  present  god,  shall  Caesar  reign.' 

Francis.     Horace.  Odes,  iii.  5.  2. 
(rising 


Aetat.  64.]  The  profession  of  a  player.  269 

(rising  into  warmth,)  how  is  it  mean  in  a  player, — a  show- 
man,— a  fellow  who  exhibits  himself  for  a  shilling,  to  flatter 
his  Queen  '  ?  The  attempt,  indeed,  was  dangerous  ;  for  if  it 
had  missed,  what  became  of  Garrick,  and  what  became  of 
the  Queen  ?  As  Sir  William  Temple  says  of  a  great  Gen- 
eral, it  is  necessary  not  only  that  his  designs  be  formed  in 
a  masterly  manner,  but  that  they  should  be  attended  with 
success".  Sir,  it  is  right,  at  a  time  when  the  Royal  Family 
is  not  generally  liked ',  to  let  it  be  seen  that  the  people  like 
at  least  one  of  them.'  SiR  Joshua  Reynolds.  '  I  do  not 
perceive  why  the  profession  of  a  player  should  be  despised'*; 
for  the  great  and  ultimate  end  of  all  the  employments  of 
mankind  is  to  produce  amusement.  Garrick  produces  more 
amusement  than  any  body.'  BOSWELL.  '  You  say.  Dr.  John- 
son, that  Garrick  exhibits  himself  for  a  shilling.  In  this 
respect  he  is  only  on  a  footing  with  a  lawyer  who  exhibits 
himself  for  his  fee,  and  even  will  maintain  any  nonsense  or 
absurdity,  if  the  case  requires  it.  Garrick  refuses  a  play 
or  a  part  which  he  does  not  like ;  a  lawyer  never  refuses.' 
Johnson.  'Why,  Sir,  Avhat  does  this  prove?  only  that  a 
lawyer  is  worse.  Boswell  is  now  like  Jack  in  The  Talc  of 
a   Tub^^  who,  when  he  is  puzzled   by  an   argument,  hangs 


'  See  a7itc,  \.  193. 

•  Johnson  refers,  I  believe,  to  Temple's  Essay  Of  Heroic  Virtue, 
where  he  says  that  '  the  excellency  of  genius '  must  not  only  '  be  cul- 
tivated by  education  and  instruction,'  but  also  '  must  be  assisted  by 
fortune  to  preserve  it  to  maturity ;  because  the  noblest  spirit  or  genius 
in  the  world,  if  it  falls,  though  never  so  bravely,  in  its  first  enterprises, 
cannot  deserve  enough  of  mankind  to  pretend  to  so  great  a  reward  as 
the  esteem  of  heroic  virtue.'     Temple's  Works,  iii.  306. 

^  Sec  post,  Sept.  17,  1777. 

*  In  an  epitaph  that  Burke  wrote  for  Garrick,  he  says  : — '  He  raised 
the  character  of  his  profession  to  the  rank  of  a  liberal  art.'  Wind- 
ham's Diary,  p.  361. 

'  'The  allusion,'  as  Mr.  Lockhart  pointed  out, '  is  not  to  the  Tale  of 
a  Tub,  huX.  to  Xhc  History  of  fohn  BulT  (part  ii.  ch.  12  and  13).  Jack, 
who  hangs  himself,  is  however  the  youngest  of  the  three  brothers  of 
The  Tale  of  a  Tub, 'that  have  made  such  a  clutter  in  the  world'  (//;. 
chap.  iij.     Jack  was  unwillingly  convinced  by  Habbakkuk's  argument 

himself. 


2  70  A  dinner  at  Mr.  Beaucler/c  s.         [a.d,  1773. 

himself.  He  thinks  I  shall  cut  him  down,  but  I'll  let  him 
hang,'  (laughing  vociferously.)  SiR  Joshua  Reynolds. 
'  Mr.  Boswell  thinks  that  the  profession  of  a  lawyer  being 
unquestionably  honourable,  if  he  can  show  the  profession 
of  a  player  to  be  more  honourable,  he  proves  his  argument.' 

On  Friday,  April  30,  I  dined  with  him  at  Mr.  Beauclerk's, 
where  were  Lord  Charlemont,  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  and 
some  more  members  of  the  Literary  Club,  whom  he  had 
obligingly  invited  to  meet  me,  as  I  was  this  evening  to 
be  balloted  for  as  candidate  for  admission  into  that  dis- 
tinguished society.  Johnson  had  done  me  the  honour  to 
propose  me ',  and  Beauclerk  was  very  zealous  for  me. 

Goldsmith  being  mentioned ;  JOHNSON.  '  It  is  amazing 
how  little  Goldsmith  knows.  He  seldom  comes  where  he  is 
not  more  ignorant  than  any  one  else.'  Sn^  Joshua  Reyn- 
olds. '  Yet  there  is  no  man  whose  company  is  more  liked.' 
Johnson.  '  To  be  sure,  Sir.  When  people  find  a  man  of 
the  most  distinguished  abilities  as  a  writer,  their  inferiour 
while  he  is  with  them,  it  must  be  highly  gratifying  to  them. 
What  Goldsmith  comically  says  of  himself  is  very  true, — 
he  always  gets  the  better  when  he  argues  alone ;  meaning, 


that  to  save  his  life  he  must  hang  himself.  Sir  Roger,  he  was  prom- 
ised, before  the  rope  was  well  about  his  neck,  would  break  in  and  cut 
him  down. 

'  He  wrote  the  following  letter  to  Goldsmith,  who  filled  the  chair 
that  evening.  '  It  is,'  Mr.  Forster  says  {Life  of  Goldsinith,  ii.  367), '  the 
only  fragment  of  correspondence  between  Johnson  and  Goldsmith 

that  has  been  preserved.' 

'April  23,  1773. 

'Sir, — I  beg  that  you  will  excuse  my  absence  to  the  Club;  I  am 
going  this  evening  to  Oxford. 

'  I  have  another  favour  to  beg.     It  is  that  I  may  be  considered  as 
proposing  Mr.  Boswell  for  a  candidate  of  our  society,  and  that  he 
may  be  considered  as  regularly  nominated. 
'  I  am,  sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 

If  Johnson  went  to  Oxford  his  stay  there  was  brief,  as  on  April  27 
Boswell  found  him  at  home. 

that 


Aetat.  G4.J  Goldsmith  in  company.  271 

that  he  is  master  of  a  subject  in  his  study,  and  can  write 
well  upon  it ;  but  when  he  comes  into  company,  grows  con- 
fused, and  unable  to  talk  \  Take  him  as  a  poet,  his  Trav- 
eller is  a  very  fine  performance;  ay,  and  so  is  his  Deserted 
Village,  were  it  not  sometimes  too  much  the  echo  of  his 
Traveller.  Whether,  indeed,  we  take  him  as  a  poet, — as  a 
comick  writer, — or  as  an  historian,  he  stands  in  the  first 
class.'  BOSWELL.  '  An  historian  !  My  dear  Sir,  you  surely 
will  not  rank  his  compilation  of  the  Roman  History  with 
the  works  of  other  historians  of  this  age?'  JOHNSON.  '  Why, 
who  are  before  him"''?'  BosWELL.  '  Hume, — Robertson  ^ — 
Lord  Lyttelton.'  JOHNSON  (his  antipathy  to  the  Scotch 
beginning  to  rise).  'I  have  not  read  Hume;  but,  doubt- 
less, Goldsmith's  History   is    better    than    the   verbiage   of 

'  '  There  are,'  says  Johnson,  speaking  of  Dryden  ( Works,  vii.  292), 
'  men  whose  powers  operate  only  at  leisure  and  in  retirement,  and 
whose  intellectual  vigour  deserts  them  in  conversation.'  Sec  also 
ante,  i.  478.  '  No  man,'  he  said  of  Goldsmith,  'was  more  foolish  when 
he  had  not  a  pen  in  his  hand,  or  more  wise  when  he  had ;'  post,  1780, 
in  Mr.  Langton's  Collection.  Horace  Walpole  {Letters,  viii.  560),  who 
•  knew  Hume  personally  and  well,'  said, '  Mr.  Hume's  writings  were  so 
superior  to  his  conversation,  that  I  frequently  said  he  understood 
nothing  till  he  had  written  upon  it.' 

^  The  age  of  great  English  historians  had  not  long  begun.  The 
first  volume  of  The  Decline  and  Fall  was  published  three  years  later. 
Addi-son  had  written  in  17 16  {Freeholder,  No.  35),  '  Our  country,  which 
has  produced  writers  of  the  first  figure  in  every  other  kind  of  work, 
has  been  very  barren  in  good  historians.'  Johnson,  in  1751,  repeated 
this  observation  in  The  Rambler,  No.  122.  Lord  Bolingbroke  wrote  in 
1735  {Works,  iii.  454),  '  Our  nation  has  furnished  as  ample  and  as  im- 
portant matter,  good  and  bad,  for  history,  as  any  nation  under  the 
sun  ;  and  yet  we  must  yield  the  palm  in  writing  history  most  cer- 
tainly to  the  Italians  and  to  the  French,  and  I  fear  even  to  the  Ger- 
mans.' 

'  Gibbon,  informing  Robertson  on  March  26,  1788,  of  the  comple- 
tion of  The  Decline  and  Fall,  said  : — '  The  praise  which  has  ever  been 
the  most  flattering  to  my  ear,  is  to  find  my  name  associated  with  the 
names  of  Robertson  and  Hume;  and  provided  I  can  maintain  my 
place  in  the  triumvirate,  I  am  indifferent  at  what  distance  I  am  ranked 
below  my  companions  and  masters.'  Dugald  Stewart's  Robertson,  p. 
367. 

Robertson, 


272  Goldsmith  as  an  historian.  [a.d.  1773. 


Robertson ',  or  the  foppery  of  Dalrymple '.'  BOSWELL.  '  Will 
you  not  admit  the  superiority  of  Robertson,  in  whose  History 
we  find  such  penetration — such  painting?'  JOHNSON,  'Sir, 
you  must  consider  how  that  penetration  and  that  painting 
are  employed.  It  is  not  history,  it  is  imagination.  He  who 
describes  what  he  never  saw,  draws  from  fancy.  Robertson 
paints  minds  as  Sir  Joshua  paints  faces  in  a  history-piece: 
he  imagines  an  heroic  countenance.  You  must  look  upon 
Robertson's  work  as  romance,  and  try  it  by  that  standard '. 
Histor)^  it  is  not.  Besides,  Sir,  it  is  the  great  excellence 
of  a  writer  to  put  into  his  book  as  much  as  his  book  will 
hold.  Goldsmith  has  done  this  in  his  History.  Now  Robert- 
son might  have  put  twice  as  much  into  his  book.  Robert- 
son is  like  a  man  who  has  packed  gold  in  wool :  the  wool 
takes  up  more  room  than  the  gold.  No,  Sir ;  I  always 
thought  Robertson  would  be  crushed  by  his  own  weight, — 
would  be  buried  under  his  own  ornaments.  Goldsmith  tells 
you  shortly  all  you  want  to  know :  Robertson  detains  you 
a  great  deal  too  long.  No  man  will  read  Robertson's  cum- 
brous detail  a  second  time  ;  but  Goldsmith's  plain  narrative 
will  please  again  and  again.  I  would  say  to  Robertson  what 
an  old  tutor  of  a  college  said  to  one  of  his  pupils :  "  Read 
over  your  compositions,  and  where  ever  you  meet  with  a 
passage  which  you  think  is  particularly  fine,  strike  it  out." 
Goldsmith's  abridgement  is  better  than  that  of  Lucius  Florus 
or  Eutropius ;  and  I  will  venture  to  say,  that  if  you  com- 
pare him  with  Vertot\  in  the  same  places  of  the  Roman 

'  '  Sir,'  said  Johnson,  '  if  Robertson's  style  be  faulty,  he  owes  it  to 
me;  that  is,  having  too  many  words,  and  those  too  big  ones.'  Post, 
Sept.  19,  1777.  Johnson  was  not  singular  among  the  men  of  his  time 
in  condemning  Robertson's  verbiage.  Wesley  {Journal,  iii.  447)  wrote 
of  vol.  i.  of  Charles  the  Fifth : — '  Here  is  a  quarto  volume  of  eight  or 
ten  shillings'  price,  containing  dry,  verbose  dissertations  on  feudal 
government,  the  substance  of  all  which  might  be  comprised  in  half  a 
sheet  of  paper!'  Johnson  again  uses  verbiage  (a  word  not  given  in 
his  Dictiotiary),  post,  April  9,  1778. 

'  See  ante,  ii.  241.  '  See  post,  Oct.  10,  1779. 

*  '  Vertot,  ne  en  Normandie  en  1655.  Historien  agreable  et  elegant. 
Mort  en  1735.'     Voltaire,  Sieele  de  Louis  XIV. 

Histor)^ 


Aetat.  64.]     Westminster-abbey  and  Temple-bar.  273 

History,  you  will  find  that  he  excels  Vertot.  Sir,  he  has 
the  art  of  compilinij,  and  of  saying  every  thing  he  has  to 
say  in  a  pleasing  manner'.  He  is  now  writing  a  Natural 
History  and  will  make  it  as  entertaining  as  a  Persian  Tale.' 

I  cannot  dismiss  the  present  topick  witliout  observing, 
that  it  is  probable  that  Dr.  Johnson,  who  owned  that  he 
often  '  talked  for  victory,'  rather  urged  plausible  objections 
to  Dr.  Robertson's  excellent  historical  works,  in  the  ardour 
of  contest,  than  expressed  his  real  and  decided  opinion  ; 
for  it  is  not  easy  to  suppose,  that  he  should  so  widely  differ 
from  the  rest  of  the  literary  world  '\ 

Johnson.  '  I  remember  once  being  with  Goldsmith  in 
Westminster-abbey.  While  we  surveyed  the  Poet's  Corner, 
I  said  to  him, 

'"  Forsitan  et  nostrum  no7nen  niiscebitur  istis'\'' 

When  we  got  to  Temple-bar  he  stopped  me,  pointed  to  the 
heads  upon  it  \  and  slily  whispered  me, 

'' Forsitan  et  nostrum  7iomen  misccbitur  iSTis  ^"  ' 

'  Even  Hume  had  no  higher  notion  of  what  was  required  in  a  writer 
of  ancient  history.  He  wrote  to  Robertson,  who  was,  it  seems,  medi- 
tating a  History  of  Greece: — 'What  can  you  do  in  most  places  with 
these  (the  ancient)  authors  but  transcribe  and  translate  them  }  No 
letters  or  state  papers  from  which  you  could  correct  their  errors,  or 
authenticate  their  narration,  or  supply  their  defects.'  J.  H.  Burton's 
Hume,  ii.  83. 

*  See  ante,  ii.  61.  Southey,  asserting  that  Robertson  had  never  read 
the  Laws  of  Alonzo  the  Wise,  says,  that '  it  is  one  of  the  thousand  and 
one  omissions  for  which  he  ought  to  be  called  rogue  as  long  as  his 
volumes  last.'     Southey 's  Life,  ii.  318. 

^  Ovid,  de  Art.  Amand.  i.  iii.  v.  13  [339I.  Boswell.  '  It  may  be  that 
our  name  too  will  mingle  with  those.' 

*  The  Cent.  Mag.  for  Jan.  1766  (p.  45)  records,  that  'a  person  was 
observed  discharging  musket-balls  from  a  steel  crossbow  at  the  two 
remaining  heads  upon  Temple  Bar.'  They  were  the  heads  of  Scotch 
rebels  executed  in  1746.  Samuel  Rogers,  who  died  at  the  end  of  1855, 
said,  '  I  well  remember  one  of  the  heads  of  the  rebels  upon  a  pole  at 
Temple  Bar.'     Rogers's  Table -Talk,  p.  2. 

'"  In  allusion  to  Dr.  Johnson's  supposed  ix^litical  principles,  and  per- 
liaps  his  own.     Boswell. 

H. — 18  Johnson 


274  Monuments  in  St.  PauVs.  [a.d.1773. 

Johnson  praised  John  l^unyan  highly.  '  His  Pilgriins Prog- 
ress  has  great  merit,  both  for  invention,  imagination,  and 
the  conduct  of  the  story ;  and  it  has  had  the  best  evidence 
of  its  merit,  the  general  and  continued  approbation  of  man- 
kind. Few  books,  I  believe,  have  had  a  more  extensive 
sale.  It  is  remarkable,  that  it  begins  very  much  like  the 
poem  of  Dante ;  yet  there  was  no  translation  of  Dante  when 
Bunyan  wrote.  There  is  reason  to  think  that  he  had  read 
Spenser'.' 

A  proposition  which  had  been  agitated,  that  monuments  to 
eminent  persons  should,  for  the  time  to  come,  be  erected 
in  St.  Paul's  church  as  well  as  in  Westminster-abbey,  was 
mentioned  ;  and  it  was  asked,  who  should  be  honoured  by 
having  his  monument  first  erected  there'.  Somebody  sug- 
gested Pope.  Johnson.  '  Why,  Sir,  as  Pope  was  a  Roman 
Catholick,  I  would  not  have  his  to  be  first.  I  think  Milton's 
rather  should  have  the  precedence'.  I  think  more  highly 
of  him  now  than  I  did  at  twenty '.  There  is  more  thinking 
in  him  and  in  Butler,  than  in  any  of  our  poets.' 

Some    of    the    company    expressed    a   wonder   why   the 

'  '  Dr.  Johnson  one  day  took  Bishop  Percy's  little  daughter  upon 
his  knee,  and  asked  her  what  she  thought  of  Pilgrims  Progress.  The 
child  answered  that  she  had  not  read  it.  "  No  !"  replied  the  Doctor; 
"  then  I  would  not  give  one  farthing  for  you  :"  and  he  set  her  down  and 
took  no  further  notice  of  her.'  Croker's  Boswcll,  p.  838.  Mrs.  Piozzi 
{Ancc.  p.  281)  says,  that  Johnson  once  asked, '  Was  there  ever  yet  any 
thing  written  by  mere  man  that  was  wished  longer  by  its  readers,  ex- 
cepting Don  Quixote,  Robinson  Crusoe,  and  The  Pilgriins  Progress  ?' 

"^  It  was  Johnson  himself  who  was  thus  honoured.  S^&posf,  under 
Dec.  20,  1784. 

'  Here  is  another  instance  of  his  high  admiration  of  Milton  as  a 
Poet,  notwithstanding  his  just  abhorrence  of  that  sour  Republican's 
political  principles.  His  candour  and  discrimination  are  equally  con- 
spicuous.    Let  us  hear  no  more  of  his  '  injustice  to  Milton.'     Bos- 

WELL. 

*  There  was  an  exception  to  this.  In  his  criticism  of  Paradise  Lost 
(  Works,  vii.  136),  he  says  : — '  The  confusion  of  spirit  and  matter  which 
pervades  the  whole  narration  of  the  war  of  Heaven  fills  it  with  incon- 
gruity ;  and  the  book  in  which  it  is  related  is,  I  believe,  the  favourite 
of  children,  and  gradually  neglected  as  knowledge  is  increased.' 

authour 


Aetat.  64.]  ThE    WhOLE  DuTY  OF  Man.  275 

authour  of  so  excellent  a  book  as  TJie  Whole  Duty  of  Man^ 
should  conceal  himself.  JOHNSON.  *  There  may  be  differ- 
ent reasons  assigned  for  this,  any  one  of  which  would  be 
very  sufficient.  He  may  have  been  a  clergyman,  and  may 
have  thought  that  his  religious  counsels  would  have  less 
weight  when  known  to  come  from  a  man  whose  profession 
was  Theology.  He  may  have  been  a  man  whose  practice 
was  not  suitable  to  his  principles,  so  that  his  character  might 
injure  the  effect  of  his  book,  which  he  had  written  in  a  sea- 
son of  penitence.  Or  he  may  have  been  a  man  of  rigid 
self-denial,  so  that  he  would  have  no  reward  for  his  pious 
labours  while  in  this  world,  but  refer  it  all  to  a  future 
state.' 

The  gentlemen  went  away  to  their  club,  and  I  was  left 
at  Beauclerk's  till  the  fate  of  my  election  should  be  an- 
nounced to  me.  I  sat  in  a  state  of  anxiety  which  even  the 
charming  conversation  of  Lady  Di  Beauclerk  could  not  en- 
tirely dissipate.  In  a  short  time  I  received  the  agreeable 
intelligence  that  I  was  chosen ".  I  hastened  to  the  place  of 
meeting,  and  was  introduced  to  such  a  society  as  can  seldom 
be  found.  Mr.  Edmund  Burke,  whom  I  then  saw  for  the 
first  time,  and  whose  splendid  talents  had  long  made  me 
ardently  wish  for  his  acquaintance;  Dr.  Nugent,  Mr.  Gar- 
rick,  Dr.  Goldsmith,  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir  William)  Jones ^ 
and  the  company  with  whom  I  had  dined.  Upon  my  en- 
trance, Johnson  placed  himself  behind  a  chair,  on  which  he 
leaned  as  on  a  desk  or  pulpit,  and  with  humorous  formality 

'  In  the  Academy,  xxii.  348,  364,  382,  Mr.  C.  E.  Doble  shews  strong 
grounds  for  the  belief  that  the  author  was  Richard  AUestree,  D.D., 
Regius  Professor  of  Divinity,  Oxford,  and  Provost  of  Eton.  Cowper 
spoke  of  it  as 'that  repository  of  self-righteousness  and  pharisaical 
lumber;'  with  which  opinion  Southcy  wholly  disagreed.  Southcy's 
Coiuper,  i.  1 16. 

^  Johnson  said  to  Boswell : — '  Sir,  they  knew  that  if  they  refused 
you  they'd  probably  never  have  got  in  another.  I'd  have  kept  them 
all  out.  Beauclerk  was  very  earnest  for  you.'  Boswell's  Hebrides, 
Aug.  21,1773. 

^  Garrick  and  Jones  had  been  elected  this  same  spring.  Sec  ante, 
i.  556,  note  3. 

gave 


276  EUGENIO.  [A.D.  1773, 

gave  me  a  Charge,  pointing  out  the  conduct  expected  from 
me  as  a  good  member  of  this  club. 

Goldsmith  produced  some  very  absurd  verses  which  had 
been  publickly  recited  to  an  audience  for  money '.  JOHN- 
SON. '  I  can  match  this  nonsense.  There  was  a  poem  called 
Eugenio,  which  came  out  some  years  ago,  and  concludes 
thus : 

"And  now,  ye  trifling,  self-assuming  elves, 
Brimful  of  pride,  of  nothing,  of  yourselves. 
Survey  Eugenio,  view  him  o'er  and  o'er, 
Then  sink  into  yourselves,  and  be  no  more  ^." 

Nay,  Dryden  in  his  poem  on  the  Royal  Society',  has  these 
lines: 

'  Mr.  Langton,  in  his  Collectiofi  {post,  1780),  mentions  an  ode  brought 
by  Goldsmith  to  the  Club,  which  had  been  recited  for  money. 

"^  Dr.  Johnson's  memory  here  was  not  perfectly  accurate  :  Etigcnio 
does  not  conclude  thus.  There  are  eight  more  lines  after  the  last  of 
those  quoted  by  him  ;  and  the  passage  which  he  meant  to  recite  is  as 
follows : — 

'  Say  now  ye  fluttering,  poor  assuming  elves. 
Stark  full  of  pride,  of  folly,  of — yourselves  ; 
Say  Where's  the  wretch  of  all  your  impious  crew 
Who  dares  confront  his  character  to  view } 
Behold  Eugenio,  view  him  o'er  and  o'er, 
Then  sink  into  yourselves,  and  be  no  more.' 
Mr.  Reed  informs  me  that  the  Authour  of  Eugenio,  a  Wine  Mer- 
chant at  Wrexham  in  Denbighshire,  soon  after  its  publication,  viz. 
17th  May,  1737,  cut  his  own  throat;  and  that  it  appears  by  Swift's 
Works  that  the  poem  had  been  shewn  to  him,  and  received  some  of 
his  corrections.     Johnson  had  read  Eugenio  on  his  first  coming  to 
town,  for  we  see  it  mentioned  in  one  of  his  letters  to  Mr.  Cave,  which 
has  been  inserted  in  this  work;  [rt:«/^',  i.  141.]     Boswell.    See  Swift's 
Works,  ed.  1803,  xix.  153,  for  his  letter  to  this  wine  merchant,  Thomas 
Beach  by  name. 

^  These  lines  are  in  the  Annus  Mirabilis  (stanza  164)  in  a  digres- 
sion in  praise  of  the  Royal  Society ;  described  by  Johnson  ( Works, 
vii.  320)  as 'an  example  seldom  equalled  of  seasonable  excursion  and 
artful  return.'  /i^.  p.  341,  he  says:  'Dryden  delighted  to  tread  upon 
the  brink  of  meaning,  where  light  and  darkness  begin  to  mingle.  .  .  . 
This  inclination  sometimes  produced  nonsense,  which  he  knew ;  and 
sometimes  it  issued  in  absurdities,  of  which  perhaps  he  was  not  con- 

"Then 


Aetat.  64.]         Johiisou  s  Contempt  fov puns.  277 

"Then  we  upon  our  globe's  last  verge  shall  go, 
And  see  the  ocean  leaning  on  the  sky; 
From  thence  our  rolling  neighbours  we  shall  know, 
And  on  the  lunar  world  securely  pry." ' 

Talking  of  puns,  Johnson,  who  had  a  great  contempt  for 
that  species  of  wit ',  deigned  to  allow  that  there  was  one 
good  pun  in  Menag'iana,  I  think  on  the  word  corps'". 

Much  pleasant  conversation  passed,  which  Johnson  rel- 
ished with  great  good  humour.  But  his  conversation  alone, 
or  what  led  to  it,  or  was  interwoven  with  it,  is  the  business 
of  this  work  ^ 

scious.'     He  then  quotes  these  lines,  and  continues :  '  They  have  no 
meaning;  but  may  we  not  say,  in   imitation  of  Cowley  on  another 

book — 

"  Tis  so  like  sense,  'twill  serve  the  turn  as  well."  ' 
Cowley's  line  is  from  his  Phidartqi<e  Ode  to  Mr.  Hobs : — 

'  'Tis  so  like  truth,  'twill  serve  our  turn  as  well.' 

'  In  his  Dictionary,  he  defines  punster  as  a  lotu  tuit.au/io  endeavours 
at  reputation  by  double  meaning.     See  post,  April  28,  1778. 

^  I  formerly  thought  that  I  had  perhaps  mistaken  the  word,  and 
imagined  it  to  be  Corps,  from  its  similarity  of  sound  to  the  real  one. 
For  an  accurate  and  shrewd  unknown  gentleman,  to  whom  I  am 
indebted  for  some  remarks  on  my  work,  observes  on  this  passage — 
'  O.  if  not  on  the  word  Fort?  A  vociferous  French  preacher  said  of 
Bourdaloue,  "  II  preche  fort  bien,  et  moi  bien/ort."  ' — Menagiana.  See 
also  Anecdotes  Litteraires,  Article  '  Bourdaloue.'  But  my  ingenious 
and  obliging  correspondent,  Mr.  Abercrombie  of  Philadelphia,  has 
pointed  out  to  me  the  following  passage  in  Menagiana  ;  which  ren- 
ders the  preceding  conjecture  unnecessary,  and  confirms  my  original 
statement : 

'  Mad"""  de  Bourdonne,  Chanoinesse  de  Remiremont,  venoit  d'en- 
tendre  un  discours  plein  de  feu  et  d'esprit,  mais  fort  peu  solide,  et 
tres-irregulier.  Une  de  ses  amies,  qui  y  prenoit  interct  pour  I'orateur, 
lui  dit  en  sortant, "  Eh  bien,  Mad"'^  que  vous  semble-t-il  de  ce  que 
vous  venez  d'entendre? — Qu'il  y  a  d'esprit?" — "  II  y  a  tant,  repondit 
Mad""  de  Bourdonne,  que  je  n'y  ai  pas  vu  de  corps." ' — Menagiana, 
tome  ii.  p.  64.  Amsterd.  171 3.  Boswell.  Menagiana,  ou  les  bons  mots 
et  remarques  critiques,  historiqucs,  morales  et  d'crudition  de  M.  Me- 
nage, rccueillics  par  ses  amis,  was  published  in  1693.  Gillcs  Menage 
was  born  161 3,  died  1692. 

'  That  Johnson  only  relished  the  conversation,  and  did  not  join  in 
it,  is  most  unlikely.     In  his  change  to  Boswell,  he  very  likely  pointed 

On 


2'jS  Lay-patro7ts  and  pastors.  [a.d.  1773. 

On  Saturday,  May  i,  we  dined  by  ourselves  at  our  old 
rendezvous,  the  Mitre  tavern.  He  was  placid,  but  not  much 
disposed  to  talk.  He  observed  that  'The  Irish  mix  better 
with  the  English  than  the  Scotch  do ;  their  language  is 
nearer  to  English  ;  as  a  proof  of  which,  they  succeed  very 
well  as  players,  which  Scotchmen  do  not.  Then,  Sir,  they 
have  not  that  extreme  nationality  which  we  find  in  the 
Scotch.  I  will  do  you,  Boswell,  the  justice  to  say,  that  you 
are  the  most  iinscottificd  of  your  countrymen.  You  are  al- 
most the  only  instance  of  a  Scotchman  that  I  have  known, 
who  did  not  at  every  other  sentence  bring  in  some  other 
Scotchman  '.' 

We  drank  tea  with  Mrs.  Williams.  I  introduced  a  ques- 
tion which  has  been  much  agitated  in  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, whether  the  claim  of  lay-patrons  to  present  ministers 
to  parishes  be  well  founded  ;  and  supposing  it  to  be  well 
founded,  whether  it  ought  to  be  exercised  without  the  con- 
currence of  the  people?  That  Church  is  composed  of  a 
series  of  judicatures :  a  Presbytery, — a  Synod,  and  finally, 
a  General  Assembly ;  before  all  of  which,  this  matter  may 
be  contended  :  and  in  some  cases  the  Presbytery  having 
refused  to  induct  or  settle,  as  they  call  it,  the  person  pre- 
sented by  the  patron,  it  has  been  found  necessary  to  ap- 
peal to  the  General  Assembly.  He  said,  I  might  see  the 
subject  well  treated  in  the  Defence  of  Pluralities'' ;  and  al- 
though he  thought  that  a  patron  should  exercise  his  right 
with  tenderness  to  the  inclinations  of  the  people  of  a  parish, 
he  was  very  clear  as  to  his  right.  Then  supposing  the  ques- 
tion to  be  pleaded  before  the  General  Assembly,  he  dictated 
to  me  what  follows  : 

'  Against  the  right  of  patrons  is  commonly  opposed,  by  the  infe- 
riour  judicatures,  the  plea  of  conscience.     Their  conscience  tells 

out  that  what  was  said  within  was  not  to  be  reported  without.  Bos- 
well gives  only  brief  reports  of  the  talk  at  the  Club,  and  these  not 
openly.     Stt  post,  April  7, 1775,  note. 

'  See/tfj/,  the  passage  before  Feb.  18,  1^75. 

*  By  the  Rev.  Henry  Wharton,  published  in  1692. 

them, 


Aetat.  04.]  The  rights  of  lay-patro7ts.  279 

them,  that  the  people  ought  to  choose  their  pastor ;  their  con- 
science tells  them  that  they  ought  not  to  impose  upon  a  congrega- 
tion a  minister  ungrateful  and  unacceptable  to  his  auditors.  Con- 
science is  nothing  more  than  a  conviction  felt  by  ourselves  of 
something  to  be  done,  or  something  to  be  avoided ;  and  in  ques- 
tions of  simple  unperplexed  morality,  conscience  is  very  often  a 
guide  that  may  be  trusted.  But  before  conscience  can  determine, 
the  state  of  the  question  is  supposed  to  be  completely  known.  In 
questions  of  law,  or  of  fact,  conscience  is  very  often  confounded 
with  opinion.  No  man's  conscience  can  tell  him  the  right  of  an- 
other man  ' ;  they  must  be  known  by  rational  investigation  or  his- 
torical enquiry.  Opinion,  which  he  that  holds  it  may  call  his  con- 
science, may  teach  some  men  that  religion  would  be  promoted,  and 
quiet  preserved,  by  granting  to  the  people  universally  the  choice 
of  their  ministers.  But  it  is  a  conscience  very  ill  informed  that 
violates  the  rights  of  one  man,  for  the  convenience  of  another. 
Religion  cannot  be  promoted  by  injustice :  and  it  was  never  yet 
found  that  a  popular  election  was  very  quietly  transacted. 

'That  justice  would  be  violated  by  transferring  to  the  people  the 
right  of  patronage,  is  apparent  to  all  who  know  whence  that  right 
had  its  original.  The  right  of  patronage  was  not  at  first  a  privi- 
lege torn  by  power  from  unresisting  poverty.  It  is  not  an  authority 
at  first  usurped  in  times  of  ignorance,  and  established  only  by  suc- 
cession and  by  precedents.  It  is  not  a  grant  capriciously  made 
from  a  higher  tyrant  to  a  lower.  It  is  a  right  dearly  purchased  by 
the  first  possessors,  and  justly  inherited  by  those  that  succeeded 
them.  When  Christianity  was  established  in  this  island,  a  regular 
mode  of  publick  worship  was  prescribed.  Publick  worship  requires 
a  publick  place ;  and  the  proprietors  of  lands,  as  they  were  con- 
verted, built  churches  for  their  families  and  their  vassals.  For  the 
maintenance  of  ministers,  they  settled  a  certain  portion  of  their 
lands ;  and  a  district,  through  which  each  minister  was  required  to 
extend  his  care,  was,  by  that  circumscription,  constituted  a  parish. 
This  is  a  position  so  generally  received  in  England,  that  the  extent 
of  a  manor  and  of  a  parish  are  regularly  received  for  each  other. 
The  churches  which  the  proprietors  of  lands  had  thus  built  and 
thus  endowed,  they  justly  thought  themselves  entitled  to  provide 
with  ministers ;  and  where  the  episcopal  government  prevails,  the 
Bishop  has  no  power  to  reject  a  man  nominated  by  the  patron,  but 
for  some  crime  that  might  exclude  him  from  the  priesthood.     For 

*  See  atite,  ii.  145,  for  what  Johnson  said  of  the  imuard light. 

the 


28o  The  rights  of  lay-patrons.  [a.d.  1773. 


the  endowment  of  the  church  being  the  gift  of  the  landlord,  he  was 
consequently  at  liberty  to  give  it  according  to  his  choice,  to  any 
man  capable  of  performing  the  holy  offices.  The  people  did  not 
choose  him,  because  the  people  did  not  pay  him. 

'We  hear  it  sometimes  urged,  that  this  original  right  is  passed 
out  of  memory,  and  is  obliterated  and  obscured  by  many  transla- 
tions of  property  and  changes  of  government;  that  scarce  any 
church  is  now  in  the  hands  of  the  heirs  of  the  builders ;  and  that 
the  present  persons  have  entered  subsequently  upon  the  pretended 
rights  by  a  thousand  accidental  and  unknown  causes.  Much  of 
this,  perhaps,  is  true.  But  how  is  the  right  of  patronage  extin- 
guished ?  If  the  right  followed  the  lands,  it  is  possessed  by  the 
same  equity  by  which  the  lands  are  possessed.  It  is,  in  effect, 
part  of  the  manor,  and  protected  by  the  same  laws  with  every 
other  privilege.  Let  us  suppose  an  estate  forfeited  by  treason,  and 
granted  by  the  Crown  to  a  new  family.  With  the  lands  were  for- 
feited all  the  rights  appendant  to  those  lands ;  by  the  same  power 
that  grants  the  lands,  the  rights  also  are  granted.  The  right  lost 
to  the  patron  falls  not  to  the  people,  but  is  either  retained  by  the 
Crown,  or  what  to  the  people  is  the  same  thing,  is  by  the  Crown 
given  away.  Let  it  change  hands  ever  so  often,  it  is  possessed  by 
him  that  receives  it  with  the  same  right  as  it  was  conveyed.  It 
may,  indeed,  like  all  our  possessions,  be  forcibly  seized  or  fraudu- 
lently obtained.  But  no  injury  is  still  done  to  the  people ;  for 
what  they  never  had,  they  have  never  lost.  Caius  may  usurp  the 
right  of  Titius ;  but  neither  Caius  nor  Titius  injure  the  people ; 
and  no  man's  conscience,  however  tender  or  however  active,  can 
prompt  him  to  restore  what  may  be  proved  to  have  been  never 
taken  away.  Supposing,  what  I  think  cannot  be  proved,  that  a 
popular  election  of  ministers  were  to  be  desired,  our  desires  are 
not  the  measure  of  equity.  It  were  to  be  desired  that  power  should 
be  only  in  the  hands  of  the  merciful,  and  riches  in  the  possession 
of  the  generous ;  but  the  law  must  leave  both  riches  and  power 
where  it  finds  them  :  and  must  often  leave  riches  with  the  covetous, 
and  power  with  the  cruel.  Convenience  may  be  a  rule  in  little 
things,  where  no  other  rule  has  been  established.  But  as  the  great 
end  of  government  is  to  give  every  man  his  own,  no  inconvenience 
is  greater  than  that  of  making  right  uncertain.  Nor  is  any  man 
more  an  enemy  to  publick  peace,  than  he  who  fills  weak  heads 
with  imaginary  claims,  and  breaks  the  series  of  civil  subordination, 
by  inciting  the  lower  classes  of  mankind  to  encroach  upon  the 
higher. 

'  Havins 


Aetat.  64.]  The  election  of  pastors.  281 

'  Having  thus  shown  that  the  right  of  patronage,  being  originally 
purchased,  may  be  legally  transferred,  and  that  it  is  now  in  the 
hands  of  lawful  possessors,  at  least  as  certainly  as  any  other  right ; 
— we  have  left  to  the  advocates  of  the  people  no  other  plea  than 
that  of  convenience.  Let  us,  therefore,  now  consider  what  the  peo- 
ple would  really  gain  by  a  general  abolition  of  the  right  of  patron- 
age. What  is  most  to  be  desired  by  such  a  change  is,  that  the 
country  should  be  supplied  with  better  ministers.  But  why  should 
we  suppose  that  the  parish  will  make  a  wiser  choice  than  the  pa- 
tron .''  If  we  suppose  mankind  actuated  by  interest,  the  patron  is 
more  likely  to  choose  with  caution,  because  he  will  suffer  more  by 
choosing  wTong.  By  the  deficiencies  of  his  minister,  or  by  his 
vices,  he  is  equally  offended  with  the  rest  of  the  congregation  ;  but 
he  will  have  this  reason  more  to  lament  them,  that  they  will  be  im- 
puted to  his  absurdity  or  corruption.  The  qualifications  of  a  min- 
ister are  well  known  to  be  learning  and  piety.  Of  his  learning  the 
patron  is  probably  the  only  judge  in  the  parish  -,  and  of  his  piety 
not  less  a  judge  than  others  ;  and  is  more  likely  to  enquire  minute- 
ly and  diligently  before  he  gives  a  presentation,  than  one  of  the 
parochial  rabble,  who  can  give  nothing  but  a  vote.  It  may  be 
urged,  that  though  the  parish  might  not  choose  better  ministers, 
they  would  at  least  choose  ministers  whom  they  like  better,  and 
who  would  therefore  officiate  with  greater  efficacy.  That  ignorance 
and  perverseness  should  always  obtain  what  they  like,  was  never 
considered  as  the  end  of  governmenc ;  of  which  it  is  the  great  and 
standing  benefit,  that  the  wise  see  for  the  simple,  and  the  regular 
act  for  the  capricious.  But  that  this  argument  supposes  the  peo- 
ple capable  of  judging,  and  resolute  to  act  according  to  their  best 
judgments,  though  this  be  sufficiently  absurd,  it  is  not  all  its  ab- 
surdity. It  supposes  not  only  wisdom,  but  unanimity  in  those, 
who  upon  no  other  occasions  are  vmanimous  or  wise.  If  by  some 
strange  concurrence  all  the  voices  of  a  parish  should  unite  in  the 
choice  of  any  single  man,  though  I  could  not  charge  the  patron 
with  injustice  for  presenting  a  minister,  I  should  censure  him  as 
unkind  and  injudicious.  But,  it  is  evident,  that  as  in  all  other  pop- 
ular elections  there  will  be  contrariety  of  judgment  and  acrimony 
of  passion,  a  parish  upon  every  vacancy  would  break  into  factions, 
and  the  contest  for  the  choice  of  a  minister  would  set  neighbours 
at  variance,  and  bring  discord  into  families.  The  minister  would 
be  taught  all  the  arts  of  a  candidate,  would  flatter  some,  and  bribe 
others ;  and  the  electors,  as  in  all  other  cases,  would  call  for  holi- 
days and  ale,  and  break  the  heads  of  each  other  during  the  jollity 

of 


282  The  election  of  pastors.  [a.d.  1773. 

of  the  canvas.  The  time  must,  however,  come  at  last,  when  one 
of  the  factions  must  prevail,  and  one  of  the  ministers  get  possession 
of  the  church.  On  what  terms  does  he  enter  upon  his  ministry 
but  those  of  enmity  with  half  his  parish  ?  By  what  prudence  or 
what  diligence  can  he  hope  to  conciliate  the  affections  of  that  party 
by  whose  defeat  he  has  obtained  his  living  ?  Every  man  who  voted 
against  him  will  enter  the  church  with  hanging  head  and  downcast 
eyes,  afraid  to  encounter  that  neighbour  by  whose  vote  and  influ- 
ence he  has  been  overpowered.  He  will  hate  his  neighbour  for 
opposing  him,  and  his  minister  for  having  prospered  by  the  oppo- 
sition ;  and  as  he  will  never  see  him  but  with  pain,  he  will  never 
see  him  but  with  hatred.  Of  a  minister  presented  by  the  patron, 
the  parish  has  seldom  any  thing  worse  to  say  than  that  they  do 
not  know  him.  Of  a  minister  chosen  by  a  popular  contest,  all 
those  who  do  not  favour  him,  have  nursed  up  in  their  bosoms  prin- 
ciples of  hatred  and  reasons  of  rejection.  Anger  is  excited  prin- 
cipally by  pride.  The  pride  of  a  common  man  is  very  little  exas- 
perated by  the  supposed  usurpation  of  an  acknowledged  superiour. 
He  bears  only  his  little  share  of  a  general  evil,  and  suffers  in  com- 
mon with  the  whole  parish  ;  but  when  the  contest  is  between  equals, 
the  defeat  has  many  aggravations ;  and  he  that  is  defeated  by  his 
next  neighbour,  is  seldom  satisfied  without  some  revenge  ;  and  it 
is  hard  to  say  what  bitterness  of  malignity  would  prevail  in  a  par- 
ish where  these  elections  should  happen  to  be  frequent,  and  the 
enmity  of  opposition  should  be  re-kindled  before  it  had  cooled.' 

Though  I  present  to  my  readers  Dr.  Johnson's  masterly 
thoughts  on  the  subject,  I  think  it  proper  to  declare,  that 
notwithstanding  I  am  myself  a  lay-patron,  I  do  not  entirely 
subscribe  to  his  opinion. 

On  Friday,  May  7,  I  breakfasted  with  him  at  Mr.  Thrale's 
in  the  Borough.  While  we  were  alone,  I  endeavoured 
as  well  as  I  could  to  apologise  for  a  lady '  who  had  been 

'  Lady  Diana  Beauclerk.  In  1768  Beauclerk  married  the  eldest 
daughter  of  the  second  Duke  of  Marlborough,  two  days  after  her 
divorce  from  her  first  husband,  Viscount  Bolingbroke,  the  nephew  of 
the  famous  Lord  Bolingbroke.  She  was  living  when  her  story,  so 
slightly  veiled  as  it  is,  was  thus  published  by  Boswell.  The  marriage 
was  not  a  happy  one.  Two  years  after  Beauclerk's  death,  Mr.  Burke, 
looking  at  his  widow's  house,  said  in  Miss  Burney's  presence : — '  I  am 
extremely  glad  to  see  her  at  last  so  well  housed ;  poor  woman !  the 

divorced 


4etat.  64.]      Boswell  7ningles  virtue  and  vice.  283 

div'orced  from  her  husband  by  act  of  ParHament.  I  said,  that 
he  had  used  her  very  ill,  had  behav^ed  brutally  to  her,  and 
that  she  could  not  continue  to  live  with  him  without  having 
her  delicacy  contaminated  ;  that  all  affection  for  him  was 
thus  destroyed  ;  that  the  essence  of  conjugal  union  being 
gone,  there  remained  only  a  cold  form,  a  mere  civil  obliga- 
tion ;  that  she  was  in  the  prime  of  life,  with  qualities  to 
produce  happiness  ;  that  these  ought  not  to  be  lost ;  and, 
that  the  gentleman  on  whose  account  she  was  divorced  had 
gained  her  heart  while  thus  unhappily  situated.  Seduced, 
perhaps,  by  the  charms  of  the  lady  in  question,  I  thus  at- 
tempted to  palliate  what  I  was  sensible  could  not  be  justi- 
fied ;  for  when  I  had  finished  my  harangue,  my  venerable 
friend  gave  me  a  proper  check :  '  My  dear  Sir,  never  ac- 
custom your  mind  to  mingle  virtue  and  vice.  The  woman's 
a  whore,  and  there's  an  end  on't.' 

He  described  the  father'  of  one  of  his  friends  thus:  'Sir, 
he  was  so  exuberant  a  talker  at  publick  meeting,  that  the 
gentlemen  of  his  county  were  afraid  of  him.  No  business 
could  be  done  for  his  declamation.' 

He  did  not  give  me  full  credit  when  I  mentioned  that  I 
had  carried  on  a  short  conversation  by  signs  with  some  Esqui- 
maux who  were  then  in  London,  particularly  with  one  of 
them  who  was  a  priest.  He  thought  I  could  not  make  them 
understand  me.  No  man  was  more  incredulous  as  to  par- 
ticular facts,  which  were  at  all  extraordinary^;  and  there- 
fore no  man  was  more  scrupulously  inquisitive,  in  order  to 
discover  the  truth. 

I   dined  with  him  this  day  at  the  house  of  my  friends, 

bowl  has  long  rolled  in  misery;  I  rejoice  that  it  has  now  found  its 
balance.  I  never  myself  so  much  enjoyed  the  sight  of  happiness  in 
another,  as  in  that  woman  when  I  first  saw  her  after  the  death  of  her 
husband.'  He  then  drew  Beauclerk's  character  '  in  strong  and  marked 
expressions,  describing  the  misery  he  gave  his  wife,  his  singular  ill- 
treatment  of  her,  and  the  necessary  relief  the  death  of  such  a  man 
must  give.'     Mme.  D'Arblay's  Diary,  ii.  147. 

'  Old  Mr.  Langton.     Croker.     See  j!>£7.y/,  April  26,  1776. 

'  Sec  posf,  Sept.  22,  1777. 

Messieurs 


284  The  migration  of  the  szvallows.       [a.d.  17';3. 

Messieurs  Edward  and  Charles  Dilly ',  booksellers  in  the 
Poultry  :  there  were  present,  their  elder  brother  Mr.  Dilly 
of  Bedfordshire,  Dr.  Goldsmith,  Mr.  Langton,  Mr.  Clax- 
ton,  Reverend  Dr.  Mayo  a  dissenting  minister,  the  Rev- 
erend Mr.  Toplady',  and  my  friend  the  Reverend  Mr. 
Temple. 

Hawkesworth's  compilation  of  the  voyages  to  the  South 
Sea  being  mentioned  ; — JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  if  you  talk  of  it  as 
a  subject  of  commerce,  it  will  be  gainful ' ;  if  as  a  book  that 
is  to  increase  human  knowledge,  I  believe  there  will  not  be 
much  of  that.  Hawkesworth  can  tell  only  what  the  voy- 
agers have  told  him  ;  and  they  have  found  very  little,  only 
one  new  animal,  I  think.'  BOSWELL.  '  But  many  insects. 
Sir.'  Johnson.  '  Why,  Sir,  as  to  insects,  Ray  reckons  of 
British  insects  twenty  thousand  species.  They  might  have 
staid  at  home  and  discovered  enough  in  that  way.' 

Talking  of  birds,  I  mentioned  Mr.  Daines  Barrington's  in- 
genious Essay  against  the  received  notion  of  their  migra- 
tion. Johnson.  '  I  think  we  have  as  good  evidence  for  the 
migration  of  woodcocks  as  can  be  desired.  We  find  they 
disappear  at  a  certain  time  of  the  year,  and  appear  again  at 
a  certain  time  of  the  year ;  and  some  of  them,  when  weary 
m  their  flight,  have  been  known  to  alight  on  the  ricrmne  of 
ships  far  out  at  sea.'  One  of  the  company  observed,  that 
there  had  been  instances  of  some  of  them  found  in  summer 
in  Essex.  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  that  strengthens  our  argument. 
Exceptio  probat  regulam.  Some  being  found  shews,  that, 
if  all  remained,  many  would  be  found.     A  few  sick  or  lame 

'  Sqq  post,  May  15,  1776. 

'  The  writer  of  hymns. 

'  Malone  says  that  '  Hawkesworth  was  introduced  by  Garrick  to 
Lord  Sandwich,  who,  thinking  to  put  a  few  hundred  pounds  into  his 
pocket,  appointed  him  to  revise  and  publish  Cook's  Voyages.  He 
scarcely  did  any  thing  to  the  MSS.,  yet  sold  it  to  Cadell  and  Strahan 
for  ;^6ooo.'  Prior's  Malone,  p.  441.  Thurlow,  in  his  speech  on  copy- 
right on  March  24,  1774,  said  'that  Hawkesworth's  book,  which  was  a 
mere  composition  of  trash,  sold  for  three  guineas  by  the  booksellers' 
monopolizing.'  Par/.  Hist.  xvii.  1086.  See  aiite,  i.  293.  note  2,  and 
Boswell's  Hebrides,  Oct.  3. 


ones 


Aetat.  64.]  Reaso7i  and  instinct.  285 

ones  may  be  found.'  GOLDSMITH.  '  There  is  a  partial  mi- 
gration of  the  swallows ;  the  stronger  ones  migrate,  the 
others  do  not '.' 

BOSWELL.  '  I  am  well  assured  that  the  people  of  Otaheite 
who  hav^e  the  bread  tree,  the  fruit  of  which  serves  them  for 
bread,  laughed  heartily  when  they  were  informed  of  the 
tedious  process  necessary  with  us  to  have  bread;  —  plow- 
ing, sowing,  harrowing,  reaping,  threshing,  grinding,  baking.' 
Johnson.  'Why,  Sir,  all  ignorant  savages  will  laugh  when 
they  are  told  of  the  advantages  of  civilized  life.  Were  you 
to  tell  men  w^ho  live  without  houses,  how  we  pile  brick  upon 
brick,  and  rafter  upon  rafter,  and  that  after  a  house  is  raised 
to  a  certain  height,  a  man  tumbles  off  a  scaffold,  and  breaks 
his  neck ;  he  would  laugh  heartily  at  our  folly  in  building ; 
but  it  does  not  follow  that  men  are  better  without  houses. 
No,  Sir,  (holding  up  a  slice  of  a  good  loaf,)  this  is  better  than 
the  bread  tree^' 

He  repeated  an  argument,  which  is  to  be  found  in  his 
Rambler'^,  against  the  notion  that  the  brute  creation  is  en- 
dowed with  the  faculty  of  reason  :  '  birds  build  by  instinct ; 
they  never  improve  ;  they  build  their  first  nest  as  well  as 
any  one  they  ever  build.'  GOLDSMITH.  'Yet  we  see  if  you 
take  away  a  bird's  nest  with  the  eggs  in  it,  she  will  make  a 
slighter  nest  and  lay  again.'  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  that  is  because 
at  first  she  has  full  time  and  makes  her  nest  deliberately. 
In  the  case  you  mention  she  is  pressed  to  lay,  and  must 
therefore  make  her  nest  quickly,  and  consequently  it  will 
be  slight.'  Goldsmith.  '  The  nidification  of  birds  is  what 
is  least  known  in  natural  history,  though  one  of  the  most 
curious  things  in  it.' 

'  Gilbert  White  held  '  that,  though  most  of  the  swallow  kind  may 
migrate,  yet  that  some  do  stay  behind,  and  bide  with  us  during  the 
winter.'     White's  Sclbornc,  Letter  xii.     See  ante,  ii.  63. 

*  See  a7ite,  ii.  83. 

^  No.  41.  'The  sparrow  that  was  hatched  last  spring  makes  her 
first  nest  the  ensuing  season  of  the  same  materials,  and  with  the  same 
art  as  in  any  following  year;  and  the  hen  conducts  and  shelters  her 
first  brood  of  chickens  with  all  the  prudence  that  she  ever  attains.' 

I  introduced 


286  A  discussion  on  toleration,  [a.d.  1773. 

I  introduced  the  subject  of  toleration '.  JOHNSON.  '  Ev- 
ery society  has  a  right  to  preserve  pubHck  peace  and  order, 
and  therefore  has  a  good  right  to  prohibit  the  propagation 
of  opinions  which  have  a  dangerous  tendency.  To  say  the 
magistrate  has  this  right,  is  using  an  inadequate  word  :  it  is 
the  society  for  which  the  magistrate  is  agent.  He  may  be 
morally  or  theologically  wrong  in  restraining  the  propaga- 
tion of  opinions  which  he  thinks  dangerous,  but  he  is  politi- 
cally right.'  Mayo.  '  I  am  of  opinion,  Sir,  that  every  man 
is  entitled  to  liberty  of  conscience  in  religion  ;  and  that  the 
magistrate  cannot  restrain  that  right.'  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  I 
agree  with  you.  Every  man  has  a  right  to  liberty  of  con- 
science, and  with  that  the  magistrate  cannot  interfere.  Peo- 
ple confound  liberty  of  thinking  with  liberty  of  talking ; 
nay,  with  liberty  of  preaching.  Every  man  has  a  physical 
right  to  think  as  he  pleases ;  for  it  cannot  be  discovered 
how^  he  thinks.  He  has  not  a  moral  right,  for  he  ought  to 
inform  himself,  and  think  justly.  But,  Sir,  no  member  of 
a  society  has  a  right  to  teach  any  doctrine  contrary  to  what 
the  society  holds  to  be  true.  The  magistrate,  I  say,  may 
be  wrong  in  what  he  thinks :  but  while  he  thinks  himself 
right,  he  may  and  ought  to  enforce  what  he  thinks  \'  Mayo. 
'  Then,  Sir,  we  are  to  remain  always  in  errour,  and  truth 
never  can  prevail ;  and  the  magistrate  was  right  in  persecut- 
ing the  first  Christians.'  JOHNSON. '  Sir,  the  only  method  by 
which  religious  truth  can  be  established  is  by  martyrdom. 
The  magistrate  has  a  right  to  enforce  what  he  thinks ;  and 
he  who  is  conscious  of  the  truth  has  a  right  to  suffer.  I 
am  afraid  there  is  no  other  way  of  ascertaining  the  truth, 

'  See  post,  April  3,  1776,  April  3,  1779,  and  April  28,  1783. 

'  Rousseau  went  further  than  Johnson  in  this.  About  eleven  years 
earlier  he  had,  in  his  Contrat  Social,  iv.  8,  laid  down  certain  '  simple 
dogmas,'  such  as  the  belief  in  a  God  and  a  future  state,  and  said : — 
'  Sans  pouvoir  obliger  personne  a  les  croire,  il  [le  Souverain]  pent 
bannir  de  I'Etat  quiconque  ne  les  croit  pas:  .  .  .  Que  si  quelqu'un, 
apres  avoir  reconnu  publiquement  ces  memes  dogmes,  se  conduit 
comme  ne  les  croyant  pas,  qu'il  soit  puni  de  mort ;  il  a  commis  le 
plus  grand  des  crimes,  il  a  menti  devant  les  lois.' 

but 


Aetat.  64.]  A  ciiscicssiou  Oil  tolevatioii.  287 

but  by  persecution  on  the  one  hand  and  enduring  it  on  the 
other'.'  Goldsmith.  'But  how  is  a  man  to  act,  Sir? 
Though  firmly  convinced  of  the  truth  of  his  doctrine,  may 
he  not  think  it  wrong  to  expose  himself  to  persecution  ? 
Has  he  a  right  to  do  so  ?  Is  it  not,  as  it  were,  commit- 
ting voluntary  suicide?'  JOHNSON.  'Sir,  as  to  voluntary 
suicide,  as  you  call  it,  there  are  twenty  thousand  men  in  an 
army  who  will  go  without  scruple  to  be  shot  at,  and  mount 
a  breach  for  five-pence  a  day.'  GOLDSMITH.  '  But  have 
they  a  moral  right  to  do  this?'  JOHNSON.  'Nay,  Sir,  if 
you  will  not  take  the  universal  opinion  of  mankind,  I  have 
nothing  to  say.  If  mankind  cannot  defend  their  own  way 
of  thinking,  I  cannot  defend  it.  Sir,  if  a  man  is  in  doubt 
whether  it  would  be  better  for  him  to  expose  himself  to 
martyrdom  or  not,  he  should  not  do  it.  He  must  be  con- 
vinced that  he  has  a  delegation  from  heaven.'  GOLDSMITH. 
'  I  would  consider  whether  there  is  the  greater  chance  of 
good  or  evil  upon  the  whole.  If  I  see  a  man  who  had  fallen 
into  a  well,  I  would  wish  to  help  him  out ;  but  if  there  is 
a  greater  probability  that  he  shall  pull  me  in,  than  that  I 
shall  pull  him  out,  I  would  not  attempt  it.  So  were  I  to 
go  to  Turkey,  I  might  wish  to  convert  the  Grand  Signor  to 
the  Christian  faith  ;  but  when  I  considered  that  I  should 
probably  be  put  to  death  without  effectuating  my  purpose 
in  any  degree,  I  should  keep  myself  quiet.'  JOHNSON.  '  Sir, 
you  must  consider  that  we  have  perfect  and  imperfect  ob- 
ligations. Perfect  obligations,  which  are  generally  not  to 
do  something,  are  clear  and  positive  ;  as,  "  thou  shalt  not 
kill."  But  charity,  for  instance,  is  not  definable  by  limits. 
It  is  a  duty  to  give  to  the  poor;  but  no  man  can  say  how 
much  another  should  give  to  the  poor,  or  when  a  man  has 
given  too  little  to  save  his  soul.  In  the  same  manner  it  is 
a  duty  to  instruct  the  ignorant,  and  of  consequence  to  con- 
vert infidels  to  Christianity ;  but  no  man  in  the  common 
course  of  things  is  obliged  to  carry  this  to  such  a  degree  as 
to  incur  the  danger  of  martyrdom,  as  no  man  is  obliged  to 

'  Sqc  post,  17S0,  in  Mr.  Lanifton's  Collect I'ott. 

strip 


288  A  discussion  on  toleration.  [a.d.  1773. 


strip  himself  to  the  shirt  in  order  to  give  charity.  I  have 
said,  that  a  man  must  be  persuaded  that  he  has  a  particular 
delegation  from  heaven.'  GOLDSMITH.  '  How  is  this  to  be 
known  ?  Our  first  reformers,  who  were  burnt  for  not  be- 
lieving bread  and  wine  to  be  Christ'  —  Johnson,  (inter- 
rupting him.)  '  Sir,  they  were  not  burnt  for  not  believing 
bread  and  wine  to  be  Christ,  but  for  insulting  those  who 
did  believe  it.  And,  Sir,  when  the  first  reformers  began, 
they  did  not  intend  to  be  martyred :  as  many  of  them  ran 
away  as  could.'  BOSWELL.  '  But,  Sir,  there  was  your  coun- 
tryman, Elwal ',  who  you  told  me  challenged  King  George 
with  his  black-guards,  and  his  red-guards.'  JOHNSON.  '  My 
countryman,  Elwal,  Sir,  should  have  been  put  in  the  stocks ; 
a  proper  pulpit  for  him  ;  and  he'd  have  had  a  numerous 
audience.  A  man  who  preaches  in  the  stocks  will  always 
have  hearers  enough.'  BoswELL.  '  But  Elwal  thought  him- 
self in  the  right.'  JOHNSON.  '  We  are  not  providing  for 
mad  people ;  there  are  places  for  them  in  the  neighbour- 
hood,' (meaning  Moorfields.)  Mayo.  '  But,  Sir,  is  it  not 
very  hard  that  I  should  not  be  allowed  to  teach  my  children 
what  I  really  believe  to  be  the  truth?'  JOHNSON.  'Why, 
Sir,  you  might  contrive  to  teach  your  children  extra  scan- 
dalurn  ;  but.  Sir,  the  magistrate,  if  he  knows  it,  has  a  right 
to  restrain  you.  Suppose  you  teach  your  children  to  be 
thieves?'  Mayo.  'This  is  making  a  joke  of  the  subject.' 
Johnson.  '  Nay,  Sir,  take  it  thus : — that  you  teach  them 
the  community  of  goods ;  for  which  there  are  as  many 
plausible  arguments  as  for  most  erroneous  doctrines.  You 
teach  them  that  all  things  at  first  were  in  common,  and 
that  no  man  had  a  right  to  any  thing  but  as  he  laid  his 
hands  upon  it ;  and  that  this  still  is,  or  ought  to  be,  the 
rule  amongst  mankind.  Here,  Sir,  you  sap  a  great  princi- 
ple in  society, — property.  And  don't  you  think  the  magis- 
trate would  have  a  right  to  prevent  you  ?  Or,  suppose  you 
should  teach  your  children   the   notion    of  the  Adamites, 

'  Boswell   calls    Elwal  Johnson's   countryman,  because  they  both 
came  from  the  same  county.     See  a)ite,  ii.  189. 

and 


Aetat.  64.]  A  ciiscussion  on  toleration.  289 

and  they  should  run  naked  into  the  streets,  would  not  the 
magistrate  have  a  right  to  flog  'em  into  their  doublets?' 
Mayo.  '  I  think  the  magistrate  has  no  right  to  interfere 
till  there  is  some  overt  act.'  BOSWELL.  'So,  Sir,  though 
he  sees  an  enemy  to  the  State  charging  a  blunderbuss,  he 
is  not  to  interfere  till  it  is  fired  off?'  Mayo.  'He  must 
be  sure  of  its  direction  against  the  State.'  JOHNSON.  '  The 
magistrate  is  to  judge  of  that. — He  has  no  right  to  restrain 
your  thinking,  because  the  evil  centers  in  yourself.  If  a 
man  were  sitting  at  this  table,  and  chopping  off  his  fingers, 
the  magistrate,  as  guardian  of  the  community,  has  no  au- 
thority to  restrain  him,  however  he  might  do  it  from  kind- 
ness as  a  parent.  —  Though,  indeed,  upon  more  consider- 
ation, I  think  he  may ;  as  it  is  probable,  that  he  who  is 
chopping  off  his  own  fingers,  may  soon  proceed  to  chop 
off  those  of  other  people.  If  I  think  it  right  to  steal  Mr. 
Dilly's  plate,  I  am  a  bad  man  ;  but  he  can  say  nothing  to 
me.  If  I  make  an  open  declaration  that  I  think  so,  he  will 
keep  me  out  of  his  house.  If  I  put  forth  my  hand,  I  shall 
be  sent  to  Newgate.  This  is  the  gradation  of  thinking, 
preaching,  and  acting :  if  a  man  thinks  erroneously,  he  may 
keep  his  thoughts  to  himself,  and  nobody  will  trouble  him  ; 
if  he  preaches  erroneous  doctrine,  society  may  expel  him ; 
if  he  acts  in  consequence  of  it,  the  law  takes  place,  and  he 
is  hanged  '.'  Mayo.  '  But,  Sir,  ought  not  Christians  to  have 
liberty  of  conscience?'  JOHNSON.  'I  have  already  told  you 
so,  Sir.  You  are  coming  back  to  where  you  were.'  BOS- 
WELL.  '  Dr.  Mayo  is  always  taking  a  return  post  -  chaise, 
and  going  the  stage  over  again.  He  has  it  at  half  price.' 
Johnson.  '  Dr.  Mayo,  like  other  champions  for  unlimited 
toleration,  has  got  a  set   of  words '^     Sir,  it   is   no   matter, 

'  Baretti,  in  a  MS.  note  on  Pwazi  Lcttcr-s,  i.  219,  says: — 'Johnson 
would  have  made  an  excellent  Spanish  inquisitor.  To  his  shame  be 
it  said,  he  always  was  tooth  and  nail  against  toleration.' 

^  Dr.  Mayo's  calm  temper  and  steady  perseverance,  rendered  him 
an  admirable  subject  for  the  exercise  of  Dr.  Johnson's  powerful  abili- 
ties. He  never  flinched  :  but,  after  reiterated  blows,  remained  seem- 
ingly unmoved  as  at  the  first.  The  scintillations  of  Johnson's  genius 
II. — 19  politically. 


290  GoldsmitJis  wish  to  shiiie.  [a.d.  1773. 

politically,  whether  the  magistrate  be  right  or  wrong.  Sup- 
pose a  club  were  to  be  formed,  to  drink  confusion  to  King 
George  the  Third,  and  a  happy  restoration  to  Charles  the 
Third ',  this  would  be  very  bad  with  respect  to  the  State ; 
but  every  member  of  that  club  must  either  conform  to  its 
rules,  or  be  turned  out  of  it.  Old  Baxter,  I  remember,  main- 
tains, that  the  magistrate  should  "  tolerate  all  things  that 
are  tolerable."  This  is  no  good  definition  of  toleration 
upon  any  principle ;  but  it  shews  that  he  thoughv  some 
things  were  not  tolerable.'  TOPLADY.  '  Sir,  you  have  un- 
twisted this  difificult  subject  with  great  dexterity  ^' 

During  this  argument,  Goldsmith  sat  in  restless  agitation, 
from  a  wish  to  get  in  and  sliinc  \  Finding  himself  excluded, 
he  had  taken  his  hat  to  go  away\  but  remained  for  some 
time  with  it  in  his  hand,  like  a  gamester,  who  at  the  close 

flashed  every  time  he  was  struck,  without  his  receiving  any  injury. 
Hence  he  obtained  the  epithet  of  The  Literary  Anvil.  Boswell. 
See  pos/,  April  1 5,  1778,  for  an  account  of  another  dinner  at  Mr.  Dilly's, 
where  Johnson  and  Mayo  met. 

'  The  Young  Pretender,  Charles  Edward. 

'  Mr.  Croker,  quoting  Johnson's  letter  of  May  20,  1775  {Piozzt  Let- 
ters, i.  219),  where  he  says, '  I  dined  in  a  large  company  at  a  dissent- 
ing bookseller's  yesterday,  and  disputed  against  toleration  with  one 
Doctor  Meyer,'  continues : — '  This  must  have  been  the  dinner  noted 
in  the  text ;  but  I  cannot  reconcile  the  dates,  and  the  mention  of  the 
death  of  the  Queen  of  Denmark,  which  happened  on  May  10,  1775, 
ascertains  that  the  date  of  the  letter  is  correct.  Boswell  .  .  .  must,  I 
think,  have  misdated  and  misplaced  his  note  of  this  conversation.' 
That  the  dinner  did  not  take  place  in  May,  1775,  is,  however,  quite 
clear.  By  that  date  Goldsmith  had  been  dead  more  than  a  year,  and 
Goldsmith  bore  a  large  part  in  the  talk  at  the  Dillys'  table.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  can  be  no  question  about  the  correctness  of  the 
date  of  the  letter.  Wesley,  in  his  Journal  for  1757  (ii.  340),  mentions 
'  Mr.  Meier,  chaplain  to  one  of  the  Hanoverian  regiments.'  Perhaps 
he  is  the  man  whom  Johnson  met  in  1775. 

'  See  ajtte,  i.  490,  note  2. 

^  'It  is  very  possible  he  had  to  call  at  Covent-garden  on  his  way, 
and  that  for  this,  and  not  for  Boswell's  reason,  he  had  taken  his  hat 
early.  The  actor  who  so  assisted  him  in  Young  Marlow  was  taking 
his  benefit  this  seventh  of  May;  and  for  an  additional  attraction 
Goldsmith  had  written  him  an  epilogue.'     Forster's  Goldsmith,  ii.  376. 

of 


Aetat.  64.]  Laiigton  rebuked  by  JoJuison.  291 

of  a  long  night,  lingers  for  a  little  while,  to  see  if  he  can 
have  a  favourable  opening  to  finish  with  success.  Once 
when  he  was  beginning  to  speak,  he  found  himself  over- 
powered by  the  loud  voice  of  Johnson,  who  was  at  the  op- 
posite end  of  the  table,  and  did  not  perceive  Goldsmith's 
attempt.  Thus  disappointed  of  his  wish  to  obtain  the  at- 
tention of  the  company,  Goldsmith  in  a  passion  threw  down 
his  hat,  looking  angrily  at  Johnson,  and  exclaiming  in  a 
bitter  tone, '  Take  it'  When  Toplady  was  going  to  speak, 
Johnson  uttered  some  sound,  which  led  Goldsmith  to  think 
that  he  was  beginning  again,  and  taking  the  words  from 
Toplady.  Upon  which,  he  seized  this  opportunity  of  vent- 
ing his  own  envy  and  spleen,  under  the  pretext  of  support- 
ing another  person  :  *  Sir,  (said  he  to  Johnson,)  the  gentle- 
man has  heard  you  patiently  for  an  hour ;  pray  allow  us 
now  to  hear  him '.'  JOHNSON,  (sternly.)  '  Sir,  I  was  not  in- 
terrupting the  gentleman.  I  was  only  giving  him  a  signal 
of  my  attention.  Sir,  you  are  impertinent.*  Goldsmith 
made  no  reply,  but  continued  in  the  company  for  some 
time. 

A  gentleman  present"  ventured  to  ask  Dr.  Johnson  if 
there  was  not  a  material  difference  as  to  toleration  of  opin- 
ions which  lead  to  action,  and  opinions  merely  speculative; 
for  instance,  would  it  be  wrong  in  the  magistrate  to  tolerate 
those  who  preach  against  the  doctrine  of  the  TRINITY? 
Johnson  was  highly  offended,  and  said, '  I  wonder,  Sir,  how 
a  gentleman  of  your  piety  can  introduce  this  subject  in  a 
mixed  company.'  He  told  me  afterwards,  that  the  impro- 
priety was,  that  perhaps  some  of  the  company  might  have 

'  Johnson  was  not  fjiven  to  interrupting  a  speaker.  Hawkins  {Life, 
p.  164),  describing  his  conversation,  says  : — '  For  the  pleasure  he  com- 
municated to  his  hearers  he  expected  not  the  tribute  of  silence ;  on 
the  contrary,  he  encouraged  others,  particularly  young  men,  to  speak, 
and  paid  a  due  attention  to  what  they  said.'  Sec  post,  under  April 
29,  1776,  note. 

'  That  this  was  Langton  can  be  seen  from  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug. 
22,  1773,  and  from  Johnson's  letters  of  July  5,  1773,  July  5,  1774,  and 
Jan.  21,  1775. 

talked 


292  Persectitiojis  of  Irish  Catholicks.      [a.d.  1773. 

talked  on  the  subject  in  such  terms  as  might  have  shocked 
him' ;  or  he  might  have  been  forced  to  appear  in  their  eyes 
a  narrow-minded  man.  The  gentleman,  with  submissive 
deference,  said,  he  had  only  hinted  at  the  question  from  a 
desire  to  hear  Dr.  Johnson's  opinion  upon  it.  JOHNSON. 
'  Why  then,  Sir,  I  think  that  permitting  men  to  preach  any 
opinion  contrary  to  the  doctrine  of  the  established  church 
tends,  in  a  certain  degree,  to  lessen  the  authority  of  the 
church,  and  consequently,  to  lessen  the  influence  of  relig- 
ion.' '  It  may  be  considered,  (said  the  gentleman,)  whether 
it  would  not  be  politick  to  tolerate  in  such  a  case.'  JOHN- 
SON. '  Sir,  we  have  been  talking  of  rigJit :  this  is  another 
question.  I  think  it  is  Jiot  politick  to  tolerate  in  such  a 
case.' 

Though  he  did  not  think  it  fit  that  so  aweful  a  subject 
should  be  introduced  in  a  mixed  company,  and  therefore  at 
this  time  waved  the  theological  question  ;  yet  his  own  or- 
thodox belief  in  the  sacred  mystery  of  the  TRINITY  is 
evinced  beyond  doubt,  by  the  following  passage  in  his  pri- 
vate devotions : 

'  O  Lord,  hear  my  prayer  [prayers],  for  Jesus  Christ's  sake ;  to 
whom  with  thee  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  three  perso?is  and  one  GoD, 
be  all  honour  and  glory,  world  without  end,  Amen '.' 

BOSWELL.  *  Pray,  Mr.  Dilly,  how  does  Dr.  Lcland's'  His- 
tory of  Ireland  sqWT  JOHNSON,  (bursting  forth  with  a  gen- 
erous indignation.) '  The  Irish  are  in  a  most  unnatural  state; 
for  we  see  there  the  minority  prevailing  over  the  majority*. 
There  is  no  instance,  even  in  the  ten  persecutions  ^  of  such 

"  See  post,  April  28, 1783. 

"  Pr.  and  Med.  p.  40.     BosWELL. 

^  See  ante,  i.  566. 

*  'In  England,'  wrote  Burke,  'the  Roman  Catholics  are  a  sect:  in 
Ireland  they  are  a  nation.'     Burke's  Carres,  iv.  89. 

^  '  The  celebrated  number  of  ten  persecutions  has  been  determined 
by  the  ecclesiastical  writers  of  the  fifth  century," who  possessed  a  more 
distinct  view  of  the  prosperous  or  adverse  fortunes  of  the  church, 
from  the  age  of  Nero  to  that  of  Diocletian.     The  ingenious  parallels 

severitv 


Aetat.  64.]       Johusons  apology  to  Goldsmith.  293 

severity  as  that  which  the  protestants  of  Ireland  have  ex- 
ercised against  the  Cathohcks.  Did  we  tell  them  we  have 
conquered  them,  it  would  be  above  board  :  to  punish  them 
by  confiscation  and  other  penalties,  as  rebels,  was  monstrous 
injustice  '.  King  William  was  not  their  lawful  sovereign  : 
he  had  not  been  acknowledged  by  the  Parliament  of  Ire- 
land, when  they  appeared  in  arms  against  him.' 

I  here  suggested  something  favourable  of  the  Roman 
Catholicks.  TOPLADY.  '  Does  not  their  invocation  of  saints 
suppose  omnipresence  in  the  saints?'  JOHNSON.  '  No,  Sir ; 
it  supposes  only  pluri -presence,  and  when  spirits  are  di- 
vested of  matter,  it  seems  probable  that  they  should  see 
with  more  extent  than  when  in  an  embodied  state.  There 
is,  therefore,  no  approach  to  an  invasion  of  any  of  the  di- 
vine attributes,  in  the  invocation  of  saints.  But  I  think  it 
is  will-worship,  and  presumption.  I  sec  no  command  for  it, 
and  therefore  think  it  is  safer  not  to  practise  it\' 

He  and  Mr.  Langton  and  I  went  together  to  the  Club, 
where  we  found  Mr.  Burke,  Mr,  Garrick,  and  some  other 
members,  and  amongst  them  our  friend  Goldsmith,  who  sat 
silently  brooding  over  Johnson's  reprimand  to  him  after  din- 
ner. Johnson  perceived  this,  and  said  aside  to  some  of  us, 
'I'll  make  Goldsmith  forgive  me;'  and  then  called  to  him 
in  a  loud  voice, '  Dr.  Goldsmith, — something  passed  to-day 
where  you  and  I  dined:  I  ask  your  pardon ^'     Goldsmith 

of  the  ten  plagues  of  Eg\-pt,  and  of  the  ten  horns  of  the  Apocalypse, 
first  suggested  this  calculation  to  their  minds.'  Gibbon's  Deeline  and 
Fall,  ch.  xvi.  ed.  1807,  ii.  370. 

'  See  ante,  ii.  139,  150. 

"^  See  a}ite,  ii.  120. 

'  Reynolds  said  ■ — 'Johnson  had  one  virtue  which  I  hold  one  of  the 
most  difliicult  to  practise.  After  the  heat  of  contest  was  over,  if  he 
had  been  informed  that  his  antagonist  resented  his  rudeness,  he  was 
the  first  to  seek  after  a  reconcihation.'  Taylor's  Reynolds,  ii.  457.  He 
wrote  to  Dr.  Taylor  in  1756: — 'When  I  am  musing  alone',  I  feel  a 
pang  for  every  moment  that  any  human  being  has  by  my  peevishness 
or  obstinacy  spent  in  uneasiness.'  Notes  and  Queries,  6th  S.,  v.  324. 
More  than  twenty  years  later  he  said  in  Miss  Barney's  hearing: — '  I 
am  always  sorry  when  I  make  bitter  speeches,  and  I  never  do  it  but 

answered 


294         Addisoiis  deficiency  in  conversation,    [a.d.  1773. 

answered  placidly, '  It  must  be  much  from  you,  Sir,  that  I 
take  ill.*  And  so  at  once  the  difference  was  over,  and  they 
were  on  as  easy  terms  as  ever,  and  Goldsmith  rattled  away 
as  usual'. 

In  our  way  to  the  club  to-night,  when  I  regretted  that 
Goldsmith  would,  upon  every  occasion,  endeavour  to  shine, 
by  which  he  often  exposed  himself,  Mr.  Langton  observed, 
that  he  was  not  like  Addison,  who  was  content  with  the 
fame  of  his  writings,  and  did  not  aim  also  at  excellency  in 
conversation,  for  which  he  found  himself  unfit ;  and  that  he 
said  to  a  lady  who  complained  of  his  having  talked  little 
in  company,  '  Madam,  I  have  but  ninepence  in  ready  money, 
but    I    can    draw    for   a   thousand    pounds".'      I    observed, 

when  I  am  insufferably  vexed.'  Mme.  D'Arblay's  Diary,  i.  131.  'When 
the  fray  was  over,"  writes  Murphy  {Life,  p.  140), '  he  generally  softened 
into  repentance,  and,  by  conciliating  measures,  took  care  that  no  ani- 
mosity should  be  left  rankling  in  the  breast  of  the  antagonist.'  See 
ante,  ii.  125. 

'  Johnson  had  offended  Langton  as  well  as  Goldsmith  this  day,  yet 
of  Goldsmith  only  did  he  ask  pardon.  Perhaps  this  fact  increased 
Langton's  resentment,  which  lasted  certainly  more  than  a  year.  See 
;post,'\\Ay  5, 1774,  and  Jan.  21, 1775. 

^  '  Addison,  speaking  of  his  own  deficiency  in  conversation,  used  to 
say  of  himself,  that  with  respect  to  intellectual  wealth  he  could  draw 
bills  for  a  thousand  pounds,  though  he  had  not  a  guinea  in  his  pocket.' 
Johnson's  Works,  vii.  446.  Somewhat  the  same  thought  may  be  found 
in  The  Tatler,  No.  30,  where  it  is  said  that '  a  man  endowed  with  great 
perfections  without  good-breeding,  is  like  one  who  has  his  pockets 
full  of  gold,  but  always  wants  change  for  his  ordinary  occasions.'  I 
have  traced  it  still  earlier,  for  Burnet  in  his  History  of  his  own  Times, 
i.  210,  says,  that  '  Bishop  Wilkins  used  to  say  Lloyd  had  the  most 
learning  in  ready  cash  of  any  he  ever  knew.'  Later  authors  have  used 
the  same  image.  Lord  Chesterfield  {Letters,  ii.  291)  in  1749  wrote  of 
Lord  Bolingbroke : — '  He  has  an  infinite  fund  of  various  and  almost 
universal  knowledge,  which,  from  the  clearest  and  quickest  concep- 
tion and  happiest  memory  that  ever  man  was  blessed  with,  he  always 
carries  about  him.  It  is  his  pocket-money,  and  he  never  has  occa- 
sion to  draw  upon  a  book  for  any  sum.'  Southey  wrote  in  1816  {Life 
and  Corres.  iv.  206)  : — '  I  wish  to  avoid  a  conference  which  will  only 
sink  me  in  Lord  Liverpool's  judgment ;  what  there  may  be  in  me  is 
not  payable  at  sight ;  give  me  leisure  and  I  feel  my  strength.'     Rous- 

that 


Aetat.  G4.]  Readiiiess  in  talk,  295 

that  Goldsmith  had  a  great  deal  of  gold  in  his  cabinet, 
but,  not  content  with  that,  was  always  taking  out  his  purse. 
Johnson.  '  Yes,  Sir,  and  that  so  often  an  empty  purse !' 

Goldsmith's  incessant  desire  of  being  conspicuous  in  com- 
pany was  the  occasion  of  his  sometimes  appearing  to  such 
disadvantage  as  one  should  hardly  have  supposed  possi- 
ble in  a  man  of  his  genius'.  When  his  literary  reputation 
had  risen  deservedly  high,  and  his  society  was  much  courted, 
he  became  very  jealous  of  the  extraordinary  attention  which 
was  every  where  paid  to  Johnson.  One  evening,  in  a  circle 
of  wits,  he  found  fault  with  me  for  talking  of  Johnson  as 
entitled  to  the  honour  of  unquestionable  superiority.  '  Sir, 
(said  he,)  you  are  for  making  a  monarchy  of  what  should  be 
a  republick.' 

He  was  still  more  mortified,  when  talking  in  a  company 
with  fluent  vivacity,  and,  as  he  flattered  himself,  to  the  ad- 
miration of  all  who  were  present ;  a  German  who  sat  next 
him,  and  perceived  Johnson  rolling  himself,  as  if  about  to 
speak,  suddenly  stopped  him,  saying,  '  Stay,  stay, — Toctor 
Shonson  is  going  to  say  something.'  This  was,  no  doubt, 
veiy  provoking,  especially  to  one  so  irritable  as  Goldsmith, 
who  frequently  mentioned  it  with  strong  expressions  of  in- 
dignation^ 

seau  was  in  want  of  readiness  lil<e  Addison  : — '  Je  fais  d'excellens  im- 
promptus a  loisir ;  mais  sur  le  temps  je  n'ai  jamais  rien  fait  ni  dit  qui 
vaille.  Je  ferais  une  fort  jolie  conversation  par  la  poste,  comme  on 
dit  que  les  Espagnols  jouent  aux  echecs.  Ouand  je  lus  le  trait  d'un 
Due  de  Savoye  qui  se  retourna,  faisant  route,  pour  crier  ;  h  votre gorge, 
marchand  de  Paris,  je  dis,  me  voila.'  Les  Confessions,  Livre  iii.  See 
z\soposf.  May  8,  1778. 

*  '  Among  the  many  inconsistencies  which  folly  produces,  or  infirm- 
ity suffers  in  the  human  mind,  there  has  often  been  observed  a  mani- 
fest and  striking  contrariety  between  the  life  of  an  author  and  his 
writings;  and  Milton,  in  a  letter  to  a  learned  stranger,  by  whom  he 
had  been  visited,  with  great  reason  congratulates  himself  upon  the 
consciousness  of  being  found  equal  to  his  own  character,  and  having 
preserved  in  a  private  and  familiar  interview  that  reputation  which 
his  works  had  procured  him.'     The  Rambler,  No.  14. 

"  Prior  (Life  of  Goldsmith,  ii.  459)  says  that  it  was  not  a  German 

It 


296         Johnsons  way  of  contracting  names,  [a.d.  1773, 

It  may  also  be  observed,  that  Goldsmith  was  sometimes 
content  to  be  treated  with  an  easy  familiarity,  but,  upon 
occasions,  would  be  consequential  and  important.  An  in- 
stance of  this  occurred  in  a  small  particular.  Johnson  had 
a  way  of  contracting  the  names  of  his  friends ;  as  Beauclerk, 
Beau;  Boswell,  Bozzy ;  Langton,  Lanky;  Murphy,  Mur; 
Sheridan,  Sherry'.  I  remember  one  day,  when  Tom  Davies 
was  telling  that  Dr.  Johnson  said,  '  We  are  all  in  labour  for 
a  name  to  Goldy  s  play,'  Goldsmith  seemed  displeased  that 
such  a  liberty  should  be  taken  with  his  name,  and  said, '  I 
have  often  desired  him  not  to  call  me  Goldy"^.'  Tom  was  re- 
markably attentive  to  the  most  minute  circumstance  about 
Johnson.  I  recollect  his  telling  me  once,  on  my  arrival  in 
London,  '  Sir,  our  great  friend  has  made  an  improvement 
on  his  appellation  of  old  Mr.  Sheridan.  He  calls  him  now 
Sherry  derry.' 

'To  THE  Reverend  Mr.  Bagshaw,  at  Bromley ^ 
'Sir, 

'  I  return  you  my  sincere  thanks  for  your  additions  to  my  Dic- 
tionary ;  but  the  new  edition  has  been  pubUshed  some  time,  and 

who  interrupted  Goldsmith  but  a  Swiss,  Mr.  Moser.  the  keeper  of  the 
Royal  Academy  {post,  June  2,  1783).  He  adds  that  at  a  Royal  Acad- 
emy dinner  Moser  interrupted  another  person  in  the  same  way,  when 
Johnson  seemed  preparing  to  speak,  whereupon  Goldsmith  said, '  Are 
you  sure  Xh'At  you  can  comprehend  what  he  says  ?' 

'  Edmund  Burke  he  called  Mund  ;  Dodsley,  Doddy ;  Derrick,  Der- 
ry;  Cumberland,  Cumbey;  Monboddo,  Monny ;  Stockdale,  Stockey. 
Mrs.  Piozzi  represents  him  in  his  youth  as  calling  Edmund  Hector 
'  dear  Mund.'  Ante,  i.  io8,  note.  Sheridan's  father  had  been  known  as 
Sherry  amongst  Swift  and  his  friends.     Swift's  Works,  ed.  1S03,  x.  256. 

"^  Mr.  Forster  {Life  of  Goldsmith,  ii.  103)  on  this  remarks  : — '  It  was  a 
courteous  way  of  saying,  "  I  wish /<?«  [Davies]  wouldn't  call  me  Goldy, 
whatever  Mr.  Johnson  does." '  That  he  is  wrong  in  this  is  shown  by 
Boswell,  in  his  letter  to  Johnson  of  Feb.  14,  1777.  where  he  says: — 
'  You  remember  poor  Goldsmith,  when  he  grew  important,  and  wished 
to  appear  Doctor  Major,  could  not  bear  your  calling  him  Goldy.'  See 
also  Boswell 's //i'l^r/^^'^,  Oct.  14, 1773. 

^  The  Reverend  Thomas  Bagshaw,  M.A.,who  died  on  November 
20,  1787,  in  the  seventy-seventh  year  of  his  age,  Chaplain  of  Bromley 
College,  in  Kent,  and  Rector  of  Southfleet.    He  had  resigned  the  cure 

therefore 


Aetat.  64.]  Literary  property.  297 

therefore  I  cannot  now  make  use  of  them.     Whether  I  shall  ever 
revise  it  more.  I  know  not.     If  many  readers  had  been  as  judicious, 
as  diligent,  and  as  communicative  as  yourself,  my  work  had  been 
better.     The  world  must  at  present  take  it  as  it  is.     I  am,  Sir, 
'  Your  most  obliged 

*  And  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson. 
'May  8, 1773.' 

On  Sunday,  May  8',  I  dined  with  Johnson  at  Mr.  Lang- 
ton's^  with  Dr.  Beattie  and  some  other  company.  He  des- 
canted on  the  subject  of  Literary  Property.  '  There  seems, 
(said  he,)  to  be  in  authours  a  stronger  right  of  property 
than  that  by  occupancy;  a  metaphysical^  right,  a  right,  as 
it  were,  of  creation,  which  should  from  its  nature  be  per- 
petual ;  but  the  consent  of  nations  is  against  it,  and  indeed 
reason  and  the  interests  of  learning  are  against  it ;  for  were 
it  to  be  perpetual,  no  book,  however  useful,  could  be  univer- 
sally diffused  amongst  mankind,  should  the  proprietor  take 
it  into  his  head  to  restrain  its  circulation.  No  book  could 
have   the   advantage   of  being  edited   with   notes,  however 

of  Bromley  Parish  some  time  before  his  death.  For  this,  and  another 
letter  from  Dr.  Johnson  in  1784,  to  the  same  truely  respectable  man,  I 
am  indebted  to  Dr.  John  Loveday,  of  the  Commons  {ante,  i.  534,  note 
3],  a  son  of  the  late  learned  and  pious  John  Loveday,  Esq.,  of  Cavers- 
ham  in  Berkshire,  who  obligingly  transcribed  them  for  me  from  the 
originals  in  his  possession.  This  worthy  gentleman,  having  retired 
from  business,  now  Hves  in  Warwickshire.  The  world  has  been  lately 
obliged  to  him  as  the  Editor  of  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Townson's  excellent 
work,  modestly  entitled  A  Discourse  on  the  Evangelical  History,  from 
the  Interment  to  the  Ascension  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ ; 
to  which  is  prefixed,  a  truly  interesting  and  pleasing  account  of  the 
authour,  by  the  Reverend  Mr.  Ralph  Churton.     Boswell. 

'  Sunday  was  May  9. 

^  As  Langton  was  found  to  deeply  resent  Johnson's  hasty  expres- 
sion at  the  dinner  on  the  7th,  we  must  assume  that  he  had  invited 
Johnson  to  dine  with  him  before  the  offence  had  been  given. 

'  In  the  Dictionary  Johnson,  as  the  second  definition  of  metaphys- 
ical,ssc^s: — 'In  Shakespeare  it  means  supernatural  or  preternatural.' 
'  Creation  '  being  beyond  the  nature  of  man,  the  right  derived  from  it 
is  preternatural  or  metaphysical. 

necessary 


29S  Goldsmitlis  envy.  [a.d.  1773. 

necessary  to  its  elucidation,  should  the  proprietor  per- 
versely oppose  it.  For  the  general  good  of  the  world,  there- 
fore, whatever  valuable  work  has  once  been  created  by  an 
authour,  and  issued  out  by  him,  should  be  understood  as 
no  longer  in  his  power,  but  as  belonging  to  the  publick ; 
at  the  same  time  the  authour  is  entitled  to  an  adequate 
reward.  This  he  should  have  by  an  exclusive  right  to  his 
work  for  a  considerable  number  of  years'.' 

He  attacked  Lord  Monboddo's  strange  speculation  on  the 
primitive  state  of  human  nature^;  observing, '  Sir,  it  is  all 
conjecture  about  a  thing  useless,  even  were  it  known  to  be 
true.  Knowledge  of  all  kinds  is  good.  Conjecture,  as  to 
things  useful,  is  good  ;  but  conjecture  as  to  what  it  would 
be  useless  to  know,  such  as  whether  men  went  upon  all 
four,  is  very  idle.' 

On  Monday,  May  9\  as  I  was  to  set  out  on  my  re- 
turn to  Scotland  next  morning,  I  was  desirous  to  see  as 
much  of  Dr.  Johnson  as  I  could.  But  I  first  called  on  Gold- 
smith to  take  leave  of  him.  The  jealousy  and  envy  which, 
though  possessed  of  many  most  amiable  qualities,  he  frankly 
avowed,  broke  out  violently  at  this  interview.  Upon  an- 
other occasion,  when  Goldsmith  confessed  himself  to  be  of 
an  envious  disposition,  I  contended  with  Johnson  that  we 
ought  not  to  be  angry  with  him,  he  was  so  candid  in  own- 
ing it.  '  Nay,  Sir,  (said  Johnson,)  we  must  be  angry  that 
a  man  has  such  a  superabundance  of  an  odious  quality,  that 
he  cannot  keep  it  within  his  own  breast,  but  it  boils  over.' 
In  my  opinion,  however.  Goldsmith,  had  not  more  of  it  than 
other  people  have,  but  only  talked  of  it  freely'. 

'  See  arite,  i.  506. 

^  Hume,  on  Feb.  24  of  this  year,  mentioned  to  Adam  Smith  as  a  late 
pubUcation  Lord  Monboddo's  Origin  and  Progress  of  Language ; — '  It 
contains  all  the  absurdity  and  malignity  which  I  suspected ;  but  is  writ 
with  more  ingenuity  and  in  a  better  style  than  I  looked  for.'  J.  H. 
Burton's  Hnme,  ii.  466.     See  ante,  ii.  85. 

^  Monday  was  May  10. 

*  See  rt;//'t',  i.  478.  Percy  wrote  of  Goldsmith's  envy : — 'Whatever  ap- 
peared of  this  kind  was  a  mere  momentary  sensation,  which  he  knew 
not  how,  like  other  men,  to  conceal.'     Goldsmith's  Misc.  Works,  i.  117. 

He 


Aetat.  64.]  Johnson  on  heirs  male.  299 

He  now  seemed  very  angry  that  Johnson  was  going  to 
be  a  traveller ;  said  '  he  would  be  a  dead  weight  for  me  to 
carry,  and  that  I  should  never  be  able  to  lug  him  along 
through  the  Highlands  and  Hebrides.'  Nor  would  he  pa- 
tiently allow  me  to  enlarge  upon  Johnson's  wonderful  abili- 
ties ;  but  exclaimed,  '  Is  he  like  Burke,  who  winds  into  a 
subject  like  a  serpent?'  '  But,  (said  I,)  Johnson  is  the  Her- 
cules who  strangled  serpents  in  his  cradle.' 

I  dined  with  Dr.  Johnson  at  General  Paoli's.  He  was 
obliged,  by  indisposition,  to  leave  the  company  early ;  he 
appointed  me,  however,  to  meet  him  in  the  evening  at  Mr. 
(now  Sir  Robert)  Chambers's  in  the  Temple,  where  he  ac- 
cordingly came,  though  he  continued  to  be  very  ill.  Cham- 
bers, as  is  common  on  such  occasions,  prescribed  various 
remedies  to  him.  JOHNSON,  (fretted  by  pain.)  *  Pr'ythee 
don't  tease  me.  Stay  till  I  am  well,  and  then  you  shall 
tell  me  how  to  cure  myself.'  He  grew  better,  and  talked 
with  a  noble  enthusiasm  of  keeping  up  the  representation 
of  respectable  families.  His  zeal  on  this  subject  was  a  cir- 
cumstance in  his  character  exceedingly  remarkable,  when  it 
is  considered  that  he  himself  had  no  pretensions  to  blood.  I 
heard  him  once  say, '  I  have  great  merit  in  being  zealous 
for  subordination  and  the  honours  of  birth  ;  for  I  can  hardly 
tell  who  was  my  grandfather'.'  He  maintained  the  dignity 
and  propriety  of  male  succession,  in  opposition  to  the  opin- 
ion of  one  of  our  friends'',  who  had  that  day  employed  Mr. 


'  He  might  have  applied  to  himself  his  own  version  of  Ovid's  lines, 
Genus  ct  proavos,  &c.,  the  motto  to  The  Rmnbler,  No.  46 : — 
'  Nought  from  my  birth  or  ancestors  I  claim ; 
All  is  my  own,  my  honour  and  my  shame.' 
See  ante,  ii.  176. 

^  That  Langton  is  meant  is  shewn  by  Johnson's  letter  of  July  5 
{post,  ii.  304).  The  man  who  is  there  described  as  leaving  the  town 
in  deep  dudgeon  was  certainly  Langton.  '  Where  is  now  my  legacy  Y 
writes  Johnson.  He  is  referring,  I  believe,  to  the  last  part  of  his  play- 
ful and  boisterous  speech,  where  he  says : — '  I  hope  he  has  left  me  a 
legacy.'  Mr.  Croker,  who  is  great  at  suspicions,  ridiculously  takes  the 
mention  of  a  legacy  seriously,  and  suspects  'some  personal  diappoint- 

Chambcrs 


300  Langtons  will.  [a.d.  1773. 

Chambers  to  draw  his  will,  devising  his  estate  to  his  three 
sisters,  in  preference  to  a  remote  heir  male.  Johnson  called 
them  '  three  dowdies,'  and  said,  with  as  high  a  spirit  as  the 
boldest  Baron  in  the  most  perfect  days  of  the  feudal  system, 
'An  ancient  estate  should  always  go  to  males.  It  is  mighty 
foolish  to  let  a  stranger  have  it  because  he  marries  your 
daughter,  and  takes  your  name.  As  for  an  estate  newly 
acquired  by  trade,  you  may  give  it,  if  you  will,  to  the  dog 
Tozvscr,  and  let  him  keep  his  own  name.' 

I  have  known  him  at  times  exceedingly  diverted  at  what 
seemed  to  others  a  very  small  sport '.  He  now  laughed  im- 
moderately, without  any  reason  that  we  could  perceive,  at 
our  friend's  making  his  will ;  called  him  the  testator,  and 
added, '  I  dare  say,  he  thinks  he  has  done  a  mighty  thing. 
He  won't  stay  till  he  gets  home  to  his  seat  in  the  country, 
to  produce  this  wonderful  deed  :  he'll  call  up  the  landlord 
of  the  first  inn  on  the  road ;  and,  after  a  suitable  preface 
upon  mortality  and  the  uncertainty  of  life,  will  tell  him 
that  he  should  not  delay  making  his  will ,  and  here,  Sir, 
will  he  say,  is  my  will,  which  I  have  just  made,  with  the 
assistance  of  one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  in  the  kingdom ; 
and  he  will  read  it  to  him  (laughing  all  the  time).  He  be- 
lieves he  has  made  this  will ;  but  he  did  not  make  it : 
you.  Chambers,  made  it  for  him.  I  trust  you  have  had 
more  conscience  than  to  make  him  say,  "  being  of  sound 
understanding;"  ha,  ha,  ha!  I  hope  he  has  left  me  a  leg- 
acy.    I'd  have  his  will  turned  into  verse,  like  a  ballad.' 

In  this  playful  manner  did  he  run  on,  exulting  in  his  own 
pleasantry,  which  certainly  was  not  such  as  might  be  ex- 
pected from  the  authour  of  The  Rambler,  but  which  is  here 
preserved,  that  my  readers  may  be  acquainted  even  with 
the  slightest  occasional  characteristicks  of  so  eminent  a  man. 

Mr.  Chambers  did  not  by  any  means  relish  this  jocularity 

ment  at  the  bottom  of  this  strange  obstreperous  and  sour  merriment.' 
He  might  as  well  accuse  Falstaff  of  sourness  in  his  mirth. 

*  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Sept.  23,  1773,  where  Boswell  makes  the 
same  remark.  v 

upon 


Aetat, 64.]      Johnson s '' ludicrous  exhibitio7i'  301 

upon  a  matter  of  which  pars  magna  fitit ',  and  seemed  im- 
patient till  he  got  rid  of  us.  Johnson  could  not  stop  his 
merriment,  but  continued  it  all  the  way  till  we  got  with- 
out the  Temple -gate.  He  then  burst  into  such  a  fit  of 
laughter,  that  he  appeared  to  be  almost  in  a  convul- 
sion ;  and,  in  order  to  support  himself,  laid  hold  of  one 
of  the  posts  at  the  side  of  the  foot  pavement,  and  sent 
forth  peals  so  loud,  that  in  the  silence  of  the  night 
his  voice  seemed  to  resound  from  Temple-bar  to  Fleet- 
ditch. 

This  most  ludicrous  exhibition  of  the  aweful,  melancholy, 
and  venerable  Johnson  ^  happened  well  to  counteract  the 
feelings  of  sadness  which  I  used  to  experience  when  part- 
ing with  him  for  a  considerable  time.  I  accompanied  him 
to  his  door,  where  he  gave  me  his  blessing. 

He  records  of  himself  this  year,  *  Between  Easter  and 
Whitsuntide,  having  always  considered  that  time  as  pro- 
pitious  to   study,  I    attempted   to   learn   the    Low   Dutch 

*  '  Et  quorum  pars  magna  fui.' 

'Yea,  and  was  no  small  part  thereof.' 

Morris,  ^-Encids,  ii.  6. 

'  Johnson,  as  drawn  by  Boswell,  is  too  '  awful,  melancholy,  and  ven- 
erable.' Such  '  admirable  fooling '  as  he  describes  here  is  but  rarely 
shown  in  his  pages.  Yet  he  must  often  have  seen  equally  '  ludicrous 
exhibitions.'  Hawkins  {Life,  p.  258)  says,  that  '  in  the  talent  of  hu- 
mour there  hardly  ever  was  Johnson's  equal,  except  perhaps  among 
the  old  comedians.'  Murphy  writes  {L/fi\ -p.  139):  —  'Johnson  was 
surprised  to  be  told,  but  it  is  certainly  true,  that  with  great  powers  of 
mind,  wit  and  humour  were  his  shining  talents.'  Mrs.  Piozzi  confirms 
this.  '  Mr.  Murphy,'  she  writes  {Ancc.  p.  205),  'always  said  he  was  in- 
comparable at  buffoonery.'  She  adds  (p.  298) : — '  He  would  laugh  at 
a  stroke  of  genuine  humour,  or  sudden  sally  of  odd  absurdity,  as 
heartily  and  freely  as  I  ever  yet  saw  any  man  ;  and  though  the  jest 
was  often  such  as  few  felt  besides  himself,  yet  his  laugh  was  irresisti- 
ble, and  was  observed  immediately  to  produce  that  of  the  company, 
not  merely  from  the  notion  that  it  was  proper  to  laugh  when  he  did, 
but  purely  out  of  want  of  power  to  forbear  it.'  Miss  Burney  records: 
— '  Dr.  Johnson  has  more  fun,  and  comical  humour,  and  love  of  non- 
sense about  him  than  almost  anybody  I  ever  saw.'  Mme.  D'Arblay's 
Diary,  i.  204.     See  Boswcll's  own  account, /c7.y/,  end  of  vol.  iv. 

lanofuacfe.* 


302  Mrs.  Salusbtiry.  [a.d.  1773, 

language '.'  It  is  to  be  observed,  that  he  here  admits  an  opin- 
ion of  the  human  mind  being  influenced  by  seasons,  which 
he  ridicules  in  his  writings  \  His  progress,  he  says,  was 
interrupted  by  a  fever, '  which,  by  the  imprudent  use  of  a 
small  print,  left  an  inflammation  in  his  useful  eye'.'  We 
cannot  but  admire  his  spirit  when  we  know,  that  amidst  a 
complication  of  bodily  and  mental  distress,  he  was  still  ani- 
mated with  the  desire  of  intellectual  improvement*.  Vari- 
ous notes  of  his  studies  appear  on  different  days,  in  his 
manuscript  diary  of  this  year,  such  as, 

'  Inchoavi  ledionem  Paitateiuhi — Finivi  lectionetn  Corif.  Fab.  Bur- 
donu}n\ — Legi prbnum  actum  Troadiwi. — Legi Dissertationem  Clerici 
i)Ostremam  de  Pent. — 2  of  Clark's  Sermons. — Z.  Appolonii  pugnam 
Betriciam. — L.  centum  versus  Hojneri.' 

Let  this  serve  as  a  specimen  of  what  accessions  of  litera- 
ture he  was  perpetually  infusing  into  his  mind,  while  he 
charged  himself  with  idleness. 

This  year  died  Mrs.  Salusbury,  (mother  of  Mrs.  Thrale,) 
a  lady  whom  he  appears  to  have  esteemed  much,  and  whose 
memory  he  honoured  with  an  Epitaph  °. 

'  Pr.  a)id  Med.  p.  129.  Boswell.  See  post,  1780,  in  Mr.  Langton's 
Collection  for  Johnson's  study  of  Low  Dutch. 

^  '  Those  that  laugh  at  the  portentous  glare  of  a  comet,  and  hear  a 
crow  with  equal  tranquillity  from  the  right  or  left,  will  yet  talk  of 
times  and  situations  proper  for  intellectual  performances,' &c.  The 
Idler,  No.  xi.     See  asitc,  i.  384. 

^  '  He  did  not  see  at  all  with  one  of  his  eyes  '  {ante,  i.  48). 

'  Not  six  months  before  his  death,  he  wished  me  to  teach  him  the 
Scale  of  Musick  :— '  Dr.  Burney,  teach  me  at  least  the  alphabet  of  your 
language.'    Burney. 

'  Accurata  Burdonum  [i.  e.  Scaligerorum]  Fabulae  Confutatio  (auc- 
tore  I.  R).  Lugduni  Batavorum.  Apud  Ludovicum  Elzevirium 
MDCxvii.    Brit.  Mus.  Catalogue. 

"  Mrs.  Piozzi's  Anecdotes  of  Johnson,  p.  131-  Boswell.  Mrs.  Piozzi 
{Anec.  p.  129)  describes  her  mother  and  Johnson  as  'excellent,  far  be- 
yond the  excellence  of  any  other  man  and  woman  I  ever  yet  saw.  As 
her  conduct  extorted  his  truest  esteem,  her  cruel  illness  e.xcited  all  his 
tenderness.  He  acknowledged  himself  improved  by  her  piety,  and 
astonished  at  her  fortitude,  and  hung  over  her  bed  with  the  affection 

In 


303 


Aetat.  G-1.]  Dr.  Beattie  in  London. 

In  a  letter  from  Edinburgh,  dated  the  29th  of  May,  I 
pressed  him  to  persevere  in  his  resolution  to  make  this  year 
the  projected  visit  to  the  Hebrides,  of  which  he  and  I  had 
talked  for  many  years,  and  which  I  was  confident  would 
afford  us  much  entertainment. 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 

'Dear  Sir, 

'  When  your  letter  came  to  me,  I  was  so  darkened  by  an  in- 
flammation in  my  eye,  that  I  could  not  for  some  time  read  it.  I 
can  now  write  without  trouble,  and  can  read  large  prints.  My  eye 
is  gradually  growing  stronger ;  and  I  hope  will  be  able  to  take 
some  delight  in  the  survey  of  a  Caledonian  loch. 

'  Chambers  is  going  a  Judge,  with  six  thousand  a  year,  to  Bengal '. 
He  and  I  shall  come  down  together  as  far  as  Newcastle,  and  thence 
I  shall  easily  get  to  Edinburgh.  Let  me  know  the  exact  time 
when  your  Courts  intermit.  I  must  conform  a  little  to  Chambers's 
occasions,  and  he  must  conform  a  little  to  mine.  The  time  which 
you  shall  fix,  must  be  the  common  point  to  which  we  will  come  as 
near  as  we  can.     Except  this  eye,  I  am  very  well. 

'  Beattie  is  so  caressed,  and  invited,  and  treated,  and  liked,  and 
flattered,  by  the  great,  that  I  can  see  nothing  of  him.  I  am  in 
great  hope  that  he  will  be  well  provided  for,  and  then  we  will  live 
upon  him  at  the  Marischal  College,  without  pity  or  modesty  \ 

of  a  parent,  and  the  reverence  of  a  son.'  Baretti,  in  a  MS.  note  on 
Pio2zi  Letters,  i.  81,  says  that  'Johnson  could  not  much  bear  Mrs. 
Salusbury,  nor  Mrs.  Salusbury  him,  when  they  first  knew  each  other. 
But  her  cancer  moved  his  compassion,  and  made  them  friends.' 
Johnson,  recording  her  death,  says:  —  'Yesterday,  as  I  touched  her 
hand  and  kissed  it,  she  pressed  my  hand  between  her  two  hands, 

which  she  probably  intended  as  the  parting  caress This  morning 

being  called  about  nine  to  feel  her  pulse,  I  said  at  parting,  "  God  bless 
you-  for  Jesus  Christ's  sake."  She  smiled  as  pleased.'  Pr.  and  Med. 
p.  128. 

'  Johnson  wrote  to  Dr.  Taylor  July  22,  1782: — 'Sir  Robert  Cham- 
bers slipped  this  session  through  the  fingers  of  revocation,  but  I  am 
in  doubt  of  his  continuance.  Shelburnc  seems  to  be  his  enemy.  Mrs. 
Thralc  says  they  will  do  him  no  harm.  She  perhaps  thinks  there  is 
no  harm  without  hanging.  The  mere  act  of  recall  strips  him  of  eight 
thousand  a  year.'     Notes  and  Queries,  6th  S.,  v.  462. 

'^  Beattie  was  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy.     For  some  years  his 

' left 


304  Mr.  La7tgto7i  hi  deep  dudgeoii.        [a.d.  1773. 

' '  left  the  town  without  taking  leave  of  me,  and  is  gone  in 

deep  dudgeon  to ^     Is  not  this  very  childish?     Where  is 

now  my  legacy '  ? 

'  I  hope  your  dear  lady  and  her  dear  baby  are  both  well.  I 
shall  see  them  too  when  I  come ;  and  I  have  that  opinion  of  your 
choice,  as  to  suspect  that  when  I  have  seen  Mrs.  Boswell,  I  shall 
be  less  willing  to  go  away.     I  am,  dear  Sir, 

'  Your  affectionate  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  Johnson's-court,  Fleet-street, 

Julys,  1773.' 
'Write  to  me  as  soon  as  you  can.     Chambers  is  now  at  Oxford.' 

I  again  wrote  to  him,  informing  him  that  the  Court  of 
Session  rose  on  the  twelfth  of  August,  hoping  to  see  him 
before  that  time,  and  expressing  perhaps  in  too  extravagant 
terms,  my  admiration  of  him,  and  my  expectation  of  pleas- 
ure from  our  intended  tour. 

*To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  I  shall  set  out  from  London  on  Friday  the  sixth  *  of  this 
month,  and  purpose  not  to  loiter  much  by  the  way.     Which  day  I 

'  English  friends  had  tried  to  procure  for  him  a  permanent  provision 
beyond  the  very  moderate  emoluments  arising  from  his  office.'  Just 
before  Johnson  wrote,  Beattie  had  been  privately  informed  that  he 
was  to  have  a  pension  of  ^^200  a  year.  Forbes's  Beattie,  ed.  1824, 
pp.  145,  151.  When  Johnson  heard  of  this  '  he  clapped  his  hands,  and 
cried,  "  O  brave  we  !"  '     Boswell's  Hebrides,  Oct.  26. 

'  Langton.     See  rt?//!?,  ii.  291,  note  2. 

"  Langton^his  native  village. 

^  See  ante,  ii.  299,  note  2. 

*  That  he  set  out  on  this  day  is  shewn  by  his  letter  to  Mrs.  Thrale. 
Piozzi  Letters,  i.  103.  The  following  anecdote  in  the  Memoir  of  Gold- 
smith, prefixed  to  his  Misc.  Works  (i.  no),  is  therefore  inaccurate: — 
'I  was  dining  at  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds's,  Aug.  7,  1773,  where  were 
the  Archbishop  of  Tuam  and  Mr.  (now  Lord)  Eliot,  when  the  latter 
making  use  of  some  sarcastical  reflections  on  Goldsmith,  Johnson 
broke  out  warmly  in  his  defence,  and  in  the  course  of  a  spirited  eulo- 
gium  said,  "  Is  there  a  man.  Sir,  now  who  can  pen  an  essay  with  such 
ease  and  elegance  as  Goldsmith.?"'  Johnson  did  in  Aug.,  1783,  dine 
at  Reynolds's,  and  meet  there  the  Archbishop  of  Tuam, '  a  man  coarse 
of  voice  and  inelegant  of  language.'     Piozzi  Letters,  ii.  300. 

shall 


Aetat.  64.]  Johnson  s  to7ir  in  Scotland.  305 

shall  be  at  Edinburgh,  I  cannot  exactly  tell.     I  suppose  I  must 

drive  to  an  inn,  and  send  a  porter  to  find  you. 

'  I  am  afraid  Beattie  will  not  be  at  his  College  soon  enough  for 

us,  and  I  shall  be  sorry  to  miss  him ;  but  there  is  no  staying  for 

the  concurrence  of  all  conveniences.    We  will  do  as  well  as  we  can. 

'  I  am,  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

.  ,  '■  Sam.  Johnson.' 

'Aug.  3, 1773. 

To  THE  Same. 

'  Dear  Sir, 

'  Not  being  at  Mr.  Thrale's  when  your  letter  came,  I  had  wTit- 

ten  the  enclosed  paper  and  sealed  it ;  bringing  it  hither  for  a  frank, 

I  found  yours.     If  any  thing  could  repress  my  ardour,  it  would  be 

such  a  letter  as  yours.     To  disappoint  a  friend  is  unpleasing ;  and 

he  that  forms  expectations  like  yours,  must  be  disappointed.    Think 

only  when  you  see  me,  that  you  see  a  man  who  loves  you,  and  is 

proud  and  glad  that  you  love  him. 

'  I  am,  Sir, 

'  Your  most  affectionate 

'  Sa?*i.  Johnson.' 
'Aug.  3, 1773. 

To  the  Same. 

'  Newcastle,  Aug.  11,  1771. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  I   came  hither  last  night,  and  hope,  but  do  not  absolutely 
promise,  to  be  in  Edinburgh  on  Saturday.     Beattie  will  not  come 

so  soon. 

'  I  am,  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  My  compliments  to  your  lady.' 

To  the  Same. 

'  Mr.  Johnson  sends  his  compliments  to  Mr.  Boswell,  being  just 
arrived  at  Boyd's.' 
'  Saturday  night.' 

His  stay  in  Scotland  was  from  the   i8th  of  August',  on 
which  day  he  arrived,  till  the  22nd  of  November,  when  he 

'  It  was  on  Saturday  the  14th  of  August  that  he  arrived. 
II. — 20  set 


3o6  Johnsons  tour  in  Scotland.  [a.d.  1773. 

set  out  on  his  return  to  London  ;  and  I  believe  ninety-four 
days'  were  never  passed  by  any  man  in  a  more  vigorous 
exertion. 

He  came  by  the  way  of  Berwick  upon  Tweed  to  Edin- 
burgh, where  he  remained  a  few  days,  and  then  went  by  St. 
Andrew's,  Aberdeen,  Inverness,  and  Fort  Augustus,  to  the 
Hebrides,  to  visit  which  was  the  principal  object  he  had  in 
view.  He  visited  the  isles  of  Sky,  Rasay,  Col,  Mull,  Inch- 
kenneth,  and  Icolmkill.  He  travelled  through  Argyleshire 
by  Inverary,  and  from  thence  by  Lochlomond  and  Dunbar- 
ton  to  Glasgow,  then  by  Loudon  to  Auchinleck  in  Ayrshire, 
the  seat  of  my  family,  and  then  by  Hamilton,  back  to  Edin- 
burgh, where  he  again  spent  some  time.  He  thus  saw  the 
four  Universities  of  Scotland  ^  its  three  principal  cities,  and 
as  much  of  the  Highland  and  insular  life  as  was  sufificient 
for  his  philosophical  contemplation.  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
accompanying  him  during  the  whole  of  this  journey.  He 
was  respectfully  entertained  by  the  great,  the  learned,  and 
the  elegant,  wherever  he  went ;  nor  was  he  less  delighted 
with  the  hospitality  which  he  experienced  in  humbler  life  ^ 

His  various  adventures,  and  the  force  and  vivacity  of  his 
mind,  as  exercised  during  this  peregrination,  upon  innumer- 
able topicks,  have  been  faithfully,  and  to  the  best  of  my 
abilities,  displayed  in  my  Journal  of  a  Tour  to  the  Hebrides, 
to  which,  as  the  publick  has  been  pleased  to  honour  it  by 
a  very  extensive  circulation  \  I  beg  leave  to  refer,  as  to  a 

'  From  Aug.  14  to  Nov.  22  is  one  hundred  days. 

*  It  is  strange  that  not  one  of  the  four  conferred  on  him  an  hon- 
orary degree.  This  same  year  Beattie  had  been  thus  honoured  at 
Oxford.  Gray,  who  visited  Aberdeen  eight  years  before  Johnson, 
was  offered  the  degree  of  doctor  of  laws, 'which,  having  omitted  to 
take  it  at  Cambridge,  he  thought  it  decent  to  refuse.'  Johnson's 
Works,  viii.  479. 

'  He  was  long  remembered  amongst  the  lower  orders  of  Hebrid- 
eans  by  the  title  of  the  Sassenach  Afore,  the  big  Englishtnan.  Wal- 
ter Scott. 

■•  The  first  edition  was  published  in  September,  1785.  In  the  fol- 
lowing August,  in  his  preface  to  the  third  edition,  Boswell  speaks  of 
the  first  two  editions  '  as  large  impressions.' 

separate 


.^^^:.-^^'^., 


■"iA.        ^  .-X,' 


^:i-K^''      ••^j>>:^^/      ^— ;:_;-; '^';-- 


DR.  JOHNSON   IN   llEBRIDEAN   COSTUME. 


Aetat.  64.]     Mr.  Courtcnays  Hues  on  Boswell.  307 

separate  and  remarkable  portion  of  his  life ',  which  may  be 
there  seen  in  detail,  and  which  exhi-bits  as  striking  a  view  of 
his  powers  in  conversation,  as  his  works  do  of  his  excellence 
in  writing.  Nor  can  I  deny  to  myself  the  very  flattering- 
gratification  of  inserting  here  the  character  which  my  friend 
Mr.  Courtenay  has  been  pleased  to  give  of  that  work: 

'With  Reynolds'  pencil,  vivid,  bold,  and  true, 
So  fervent  Boswell  gives  him  to  our  view : 
In  every  trait  we  see  his  mind  expand; 
The  master  rises  by  the  pupil's  hand ; 
We  love  the  writer,  praise  his  happy  vein, 
Grac'd  with  the  naivete  of  the  sage  Montaigne. 
Hence  not  alone  are  brighter  parts  display'd, 
But  e'en  the  specks  of  character  pourtray'd  : 
We  see  the  Rambler  with  fastidious  smile 
Mark  the  lone  tree,  and  note  the  heath-clad  isle ; 
But  when  th'  heroick  tale  of  Flora's^  charms, 
Deck'd  in  a  kilt,  he  wields  a  chieftain's  arms  : 
The  tuneful  piper  sounds  a  martial  strain. 
And  Samuel  sings,  "  The  King  shall  have  his  <?/«." ' 

During  his  stay  at  Edinburgh,  after  his  return  from  the 
Hebrides,  he  was  at  great  pains  to  obtain  information  con- 
cerning Scotland  ;  and  it  will  appear  from  his  subsequent 
letters,  that  he  was  not  less  solicitous  for  intelligence  on  this 
subject  after  his  return  to  London. 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  I  came  home  last  night,  without  any  incommodity,  danger, 
or  weariness,  and  am  ready  to  begin  a  new  journey.     I  shall  go 

*  The  authour  was  not  a  small  gainer  by  this  extraordinary  Jour- 
ney ;  for  Dr.  Johnson  thus  writes  to  Mrs.  Thrale,  Nov.  3,  1773  : — '  Bos- 
well will  praise  my  resolution  and  perseverance,  and  I  shall  in  return 
celebrate  his  good  humour  and  perpetual  cheerfulness.  He  has  bet- 
ter faculties  than  I  had  imagined  ;  more  justness  of  discernment,  and 
more  fecundity  of  images.  It  is  very  convenient  to  travel  with  him ; 
for  there  is  no  house  where  he  is  not  received  with  kindness  and  re- 
spect.'    Let.  90,  to  Mrs.  Thrale.     {^Piozzi  Letters,  \.  \c|i>^^     Malone. 

^  '  The  celebrated  Flora  Macdonald.  See  Boswell 's  7'(3«r.'  Courte- 
nay. 

to 


o 


08  Mrs.  BoswelVs  guest.  [a.d.  1773. 


to  Oxford  on  Monday'.  I  know  Mrs.  Boswell  wished  me  well  to 
go  '^ ;  her  wishes  have  not  been  disappointed.  Mrs.  Williams  has 
received  Sir  A's '  letter. 

'  Lord  Eldon  (at  that  time  Mr.  John  Scott)  has  the  following  remi- 
niscences of  this  visit ; — '  I  had  a  walk  in  New  Inn  Hall  Garden  with 
Dr.  Johnson  and  Sir  Robert  Chambers  [Principal  of  the  Hall].  Sir 
Robert  was  gathering  snails,  and  throwing  them  over  the  wall  into 
his  neighbour's  garden.  The  Doctor  reproached  him  very  roughly, 
and  stated  to  him  that  this  was  unmannerly  and  unneighbourly. 
"  Sir,"  said  Sir  Robert,  "  my  neighbour  is  a  Dissenter."  "  Oh  !"  said 
the  Doctor, "  if  so,  Chambers,  toss  away,  toss  away,  as  hard  as  you 
can."  He  was  very  absent.  I  have  seen  him  standing  for  a  very 
long  time,  without  moving,  with  a  foot  on  each  side  the  kennel  which 
was  then  in  the  middle  of  the  High  Street,  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  the 
water  running  in  it.  In  the- common-room  of  University  College  he 
was  dilating  upon  some  subject,  and  the  then  head  of  Lincoln  Col- 
lege, Dr.  Mortimer,  occasionally  interrupted  him,  saying, "  I  deny  that." 
This  was  often  repeated,  and  observed  upon  by  Johnson,  in  terms 
expressive  of  increasing  displeasure  and  anger.  At  length  upon  the 
Doctor's  repeating  the  words,  "  I  deny  that,"  "  Sir,  Sir,"  said  Johnson, 
"you  must  have  forgot  that  an  author  has  said:  Plus  negabit  unus 
asinus  in  una  hora  quam  centum  phtlosophi  probaveritit  in  centum 
annis."  '  [Dr.  Fisher,  who  related  this  story  to  Mr.  Croker,  described 
Dr.  Mortimer  as  '  a  Mr.  Mortimer,  a  shallow  under-bred  man,  who  had 
no  sense  of  Johnson's  superiority.  He  flatly  contradicted  some  as- 
sertion which  Johnson  had  pronounced  to  be  as  clear  as  that  two  and 
two  make  four.'  Croker's  Boswell,  p.  483.]  '  Mrs.  John  Scott  used  to 
relate  that  she  had  herself  helped  Dr.  Johnson  one  evening  to  fifteen 
cups  of  tea.'     Twiss's  Eldon,  i.  87. 

-  In  this  he  shewed  a  very  acute  penetration.  My  wife  paid  him 
the  most  assiduous  and  respectful  attention,  while  he  was  our  guest ; 
so  that  I  wonder  how  he  discovered  her  wishing  for  his  departure. 
The  truth  is,  that  his  irregular  hours  and  uncouth  habits,  such  as 
turning  the  candles  with  their  heads  downwards,  when  they  did  not 
burn  bright  enough,  and  letting  the  wax  drop  upon  the  carpet,  could 
not  but  be  disagreeable  to  a  lady.  Besides,  she  had  not  that  high 
admiration  of  him  which  was  felt  by  most  of  those  who  knew  him ; 
and  what  was  very  natural  to  a  female  mind,  she  thought  he  had  too 
much  influence  over  her  husband.  She  once  in  a  little  warmth,  made, 
with  more  point  than  justice,  this  remark  upon  that  subject :  '  I  have 
seen  many  a  bear  led  by  a  man  ;  but  I  never  before  saw  a  man  led  by 
a  bear.'     Boswell.     See  ante,  ii.  75. 

^  Sir  Alexander  Gordon,  one  of  the  Professors  at  Aberdeen.  Bos- 
well. 

'Make 


Aetat.  C4.]  The  order  of  the  clans.  309 

'  Make  my  compliments  to  all  those  to  whom  my  compliments 

may  be  welcome. 

'  Let  the  box '  be  sent  as  soon  as  it  can,  and  let  me  know  when 

to  expect  it. 

'  Enquire,  if  you  can,  the  order  of  the  Clans  :  Macdonald  is  first, 

Maclean  second ;  further  I  cannot  go.     Quicken  Dr.  Webster ''. 

'  I  am,  Sir, 

'  Yours  affectionately, 

•  XT-.,,  o^  r^.,,  '  'Sam.  Johnson.' 

JNov.  27, 1773.  ^ 

'  Mr.  Boswell  to  Dr.  Johnson. 

'  Edinburgh,  Dec.  2,  1773. 

******* 

'  You  shall  have  what  information  I  can  procure  as  to  the  or- 
der of  the  Clans.  A  gentleman  of  the  name  of  Grant  tells  me, 
that  there  is  no  settled  order  among  them  ;  and  he  says,  that  the 
Macdonalds  were  not  placed  upon  the  right  of  the  army  at  Cullo- 
den ' ;  the  Stuarts  were.  I  shall,  however,  examine  witnesses  of 
every  name  that  I  can  find  here.  Dr.  Webster  shall  be  quickened 
too.  I  like  your  little  memorandums  ;  they  are  symptoms  of  your 
being  in  earnest  with  your  book  of  northern  travels. 

'  Your  box  shall  be  sent  next  week  by  sea.  You  will  find  in  it 
some  pieces  of  the  broom  bush,  which  you  saw  growing  on  the  old 
castle  of  Auchinleck.  The  wood  has  a  curious  appearance  when 
sawn  across.  You  may  either  have  a  little  writing-standish  made 
of  it,  or  get  it  formed  into  boards  for  a  treatise  on  witchcraft,  by 
way  of  a  suitable  binding.' 


'  This  was  a  box  containing  a  number  of  curious  things  which  he 
had  picked  up  in  Scotland,  particularly  some  horn  spoons.    Boswell. 

*  The  Rev.  Dr.  Alexander  Webster,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Edin- 
burgh, a  man  of  distinguished  abilities,  who  had  promised  him  infor- 
mation concerning  the  Ilighkmds  and  Iskinds  of  Scotland.    Boswell. 

'  The  Macdonalds  always  laid  claim  to  be  placed  on  the  right  of 
the  whole  clans,  and  those  of  that  tribe  assign  the  breach  of  this  or- 
der at  Culloden  as  one  cause  of  the  loss  of  the  day.  The  Macdon- 
alds, placed  on  the  left  wing,  refused  to  charge,  and  positively  left  the 
field  unassailed  and  unbroken.  Lord  George  Murray  in  vain  endeav- 
oured to  urge  them  on  by  saying,  that  their  behaviour  would  make 
the  left  the  right,  and  that  he  himself  would  take  the  name  of  Mac- 
donald.   Wal'jer  Scott. 

'  Mr.  Boswell 


3 1  o  Johnsoiis  forgiving  disposition.       [a.d.  1773. 

'  Mr.  Boswell  to  Dr.  Johnson. 

'  Edinburgh,  Dec.  i8, 1773. 

******* 

'  You  promised  me  an  inscription  for  a  print  to  be  taken  from 
an  historical  picture  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  being  forced  to  resign 
her  crown,  which  Mr.  Hamilton  at  Rome  has  painted  for  me.  The 
two  following  have  been  sent  to  me  : 

"■Maria  Scotorum  Rcgina  meliori  secido  digna.jus  rcgium  civilms 
seditiosis  invita  resignat.'''' 

"  Gives  seditiosi  Mariatn  Scotorum  Reginam  scse  muncri  abdicar( 
invitam  cognntr 

'  Be  so  good  as  to  read  the  passage  in  Robertson,  and  see  if  you 
cannot  give  me  a  better  inscription.  I  must  have  it  both  in  Latin 
and  English ;  so  if  you  should  not  give  me  another  Latin  one,  you 
will  at  least  choose  the  best  of  these  two,  and  send  a  translation 
of  it.' 

^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^ 

His  humane  forgiving  disposition  was  put  to  a  pretty 
strong  test  on  his  return  to  London,  by  a  liberty  which  Mr. 
Thomas  Davies  had  taken  with  him  in  his  absence,  which 
was,  to  publish  two  volumes,  entitled,  Miscellaneous  and  fu- 
gitive Pieces,  which  he  advertised  in  the  news-papers,  *  By 
the  Authour  of  the  Rambler.'  In  this  collection,  several  of 
Dr.  Johnson's  acknowledged  writings,  several  of  his  anony- 
mous performances,  and  some  which  he  had  written  for  oth- 
ers, were  inserted  ;  but  there  were  also  some  in  which  he  had 
no  concern  whatever'.  He  was  at  first  very  angry,  as  he 
had  good  reason  to  be.  But,  upon  consideration  of  his  poor 
friend's  narrow  circumstances,  and  that  he  had  only  a  little 
profit  in  view,  and  meant  no  harm,  he  soon  relented,  and 
continued  his  kindness  to  him  as  formerly^. 

'  The  whole  of  the  first  volume  is  Johnson's  and  three-quarters  of 
the  second.  A  second  edition  was  published  the  following  year,  with 
a  third  volume  added,  which  also  contained  pieces  by  Johnson,  but  no 
apology  from  Davies. 

"  '  When  Davies  printed  the  Fugitive  Pieces  without  his  knowledge 
or  consent;  "How,"  said  I,  "would  Pope  have  raved  had  he  been 
served  so.'*"  "We  should  never,"  replied  he, "  have  heard  the  last 
on't,  to  be  sure ;  but  then  Pope  was  a  narrow  man :  I  will  however," 

In 


Aetat.64.]      His  JoURNEY  TO   THE  HEBRIDES.  3II 

In  the  course  of  his  self-examination  with  retrospect  to 
this  year,  he  seems  to  have  been  much  dejected  ;  for  he  says, 
January  i,  1774, 'This  year  has  passed  with  so  httle  improve- 
ment, that  I  doubt  whether  I  have  not  rather  impaired  than 
increased  my  learning' ;'  and  yet  we  have  seen  how  he  read, 
and  we  know  how  he  talked  during  that  period. 

He  was  now  seriously  engaged  in  writing  an  account  of 
our  travels  in  the  Hebrides,  in  consequence  of  which  I  had 
the  pleasure  of  a  more  frequent  correspondence  with  him. 

'  To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 

'Dear  Sir, 

'  My  operations  have  been  hindered  by  a  cough ;  at  least  I 
flatter  mj-self,  that  if  my  cough  had  not  come,  I  should  have  been 

further  advanced.     But  I  have  had  no  intelligence  from  Dr.  W , 

[Webster,]  nor  from  the  Excise-office,  nor  from  you.  No  account 
of  the  little  borough  ^  Nothing  of  the  Erse  language.  I  have  yet 
heard  nothing  of  my  box. 

'You  must  make  haste  and  gather  me  all  you  can,  and  do  it 
quickly,  or  I  will  and  shall  do  without  it. 

'  Make  my  compliments  to  Mrs.  Boswell,  and  tell  her  that  I  do 
not  love  her  the  less  for  wishing  me  away.  I  gave  her  trouble 
enough,  and  shall  be  glad,  in  recompense,  to  give  her  any  pleas- 
ure. 

'  I  would  send  some  porter  into  the  Hebrides,  if  I  knew  which 
way  it  could  be  got  to  my  kind  friends  there.  Enquire,  and  let  me 
know. 

'  Make  my  compliments  to  all  the  Doctors  of  Edinburgh,  and  to 
all  my  friends,  from  one  end  of  Scotland  to  the  other. 

'  Write  to  me,  and  send  me  what  intelligence  you  can :  and  if 

added  he,  "storm  and  bluster  myself  s.  little  this  time;" — so  went  to 
London  in  all  the  wrath  he  could  muster  up.  At  his  return  I  asked 
how  the  affair  ended :  "  Why,"  said  he,  "  I  was  a  fierce  fellow,  and 
pretended  to  be  very  angry,  and  Thomas  was  a  good-natured  fellow, 
and  pretended  to  be  very  sorry  ;  so  there  the  matter  ended  :  I  believe 
the  dog  loves  me  dearly.  Mr.  Thrale"  (turning  to  my  husband), 
"  What  shall  you  and  I  do  that  is  good  for  Tom  Davies  ?  We  will 
do  something  for  him  to  be  sure." '     Piozzi's  Ancc.  p.  55. 

'  Prayers  and  Meditations,  \).\2^.     BosWELL. 

'  The  ancient  Burgh  of  Prestick,  in  Ayrshire.     BosWELL. 

any 


312  The  Hotise  of  Lords  on  copy-right,    [a. d.  1774. 

any  thing  is  too  bulky  for  the  post,  let  me  have  it  by  the  carrier. 

I  do  not  like  trusting  winds  and  waves. 

'  I  am,  dear  Sir, 

'  Your  most,  &c. 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
•Jan.  29,  1774.' 

To  THE  Same. 

'Dear  Sir, 

'  In  a  day  or  two  after  I  had  written  the  last  discontented  let- 
ter, I  received  my  box,  which  was  very  welcome.  But  still  I  must 
entreat  you  to  hasten  Dr.  Webster,  and  continue  to  pick  up  what 
you  can  that  may  be  useful. 

'  Mr.  Oglethorpe  was  with  me  this  morning,  you  know  his  errand. 
He  was  not  unwelcome. 

'  Tell  Mrs.  Boswell  that  my  good  intentions  towards  her  still 
continue.  I  should  be  glad  to  do  any  thing  that  would  either 
benefit  or  please  her. 

'  Chambers  is  not  yet  gone,  but  so  hurried,  or  so  negligent,  or  so 
proud,  that  I  rarely  see  him.  I  have,  indeed,  for  some  weeks  past, 
been  very  ill  of  a  cold  and  cough,  and  have  been  at  Mrs.  Thrale's, 
that  I  might  be  taken  care  of.  I  am  much  better  :  iiovce  rcdeicnt  in 
prcelia  vires';  but  I  am  yet  tender,  and  easily  disordered.  How 
happy  it  was  that  neither  of  us  were  ill  in  the  Hebrides. 

'  The  question  of  Literary  Property  is  this  day  before  the  Lords  ^ 
Murphy  ^  drew  up  the  Appellants'  case,  that  is,  the  plea  against  the 
perpetual  right.  I  have  not  seen  it,  nor  heard  the  decision.  I 
would  not  have  the  right  perpetual. 

'  I  will  write  to  you  as  any  thing  occurs,  and  do  you  send  me 
something  about  my  Scottish  friends.     I  have  very  great  kindness 

'  Perhaps  Johnson  imperfectly  remembered, '  uovce  rcdierc  in  pris- 
tina  vires.'     ^neid,  xii.  424. 

'  See  ante,  i.  506.  The  decision  was  given  on  Feb.  22  against  the 
perpetual  right.  '  By  the  above  decision  near  200,000/.  worth  of  what 
was  honestly  purchased  at  public  sale,  and  which  was  yesterday 
thought  property,  is  now  reduced  to  nothing.  .  .  .  The  English  book- 
sellers have  now  no  other  security  in  future  for  any  literary  purchase 
they  may  make  but  the  statute  of  the  8th  of  Queen  Anne,  which 
secures  to  the  author's  assigns  an  exclusive  property  for  14  years,  to 
revert  again  to  the  author,  and  vest  in  him  for  14  years  more.'     Ann. 

Reg.  177/^.1.  ^S- 

^  jMurphy  was  a  barrister  as  well  as  author. 

for 


Aetat.  05.]       Steevenss  election  to  The  Club.  313 

for  them.     Let  me  know  likewise  how  fees  come  in,  and  when  we 
are  to  see  you. 

'  I  am,  Sir,  yours  affectionately, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  London,  Feb.  7,  1774.' 

He  at  this  time  wrote  the  following  letters  to  Mr.  Steev- 
ens,  his  able  associate  in  editing  Shakspeare : 

'To  George  Steevens,  Esq.,  in  Hampstead. 
'Sir, 

'  If  I  am  asked  when  I  have  seen  Mr.  Steevens,  you  know 
what  answer  I  must  give ;  if  I  am  asked  when  I  shall  see  him,  I 
wish  you  would  tell  me  what  to  say. 

'  U  you  have  Lesley's  History  of  Scotland,  or  any  other  book 
about  Scotland,  except  Boetius  and  Buchanan,  it  will  be  a  kind- 
ness if  you  send  them  to,  Sir, 

'  Your  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  Feb.  7, 1774.' 

To  the  Same. 
'Sir, 

'  We  are  thinking  to  augment  our  club,  and  I  am  desirous  of 
nominating  you,  if  you  care  to  stand  the  ballot,  and  can  attend  on 
Friday  nights  at  least  twice  in  five  weeks  :  less  than  this  is  too  lit- 
tle, and  rather  more  will  be  expected.  Be  pleased  to  let  me  know 
before  Friday. 

'  I  am.  Sir,  your  most,  &c., 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  Feb.  21, 1774.' 

To  the  Same. 
'Sir, 

'  Last  night  you  became  a  member  of  the  club  ;  if  you  call  on 
me  on  Friday,  I  will  introduce  you.  A  gentleman,  proposed  after 
you,  was  rejected. 

'  I  thank  you  for  Ncander,  but  wish  he  were  not  so  fine  '.  I  will 
take  care  of  him. 

'  I  am.  Sir,  your  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  March  5,  1774.' 

'  Mr.  Croker  quotes  a  note  by  Malone  to  show  that  in  the  catalogue 
of  Steevens's  Library  this  book  is  described  as  a  quarto,  corio  turcica 
foliis  dcauratis. 

'To 


314  New  members  of  The  Chid.  [a.d.  1774. 


'To  James  Bos  well,  Esq. 

'Dear  Sir, 

'  Dr.  Webster's  informations  were  much  less  exact  and  much 
less  determinate  than  I  expected  :  they  are,  indeed,  much  less  pos- 
itive than,  if  he  can  trust  his  own  book '  which  he  laid  before  me, 
he  is  able  to  give.  But  I  believe  it  will  always  be  found,  that  he 
who  calls  much  for  information  will  advance  his  work  but  slowly. 

'I  am,  however,  obliged  to  you,  dear  Sir,  for  your  endeavours 
to  help  me,  and  hope,  that  between  us  something  will  some  time 
be  done,  if  not  on  this,  on  some  occasion. 

'  Chambers  is  either  married,  or  almost  married,  to  Miss  Wilton, 
a  girl  of  sixteen,  exquisitely  beautiful,  whom  he  has,  with  his  law- 
yer's tongue,  persuaded  to  take  her  chance  with  him  in  the  East. 

'  We  have  added  to  the  club ',  Charles  Fox  ^  Sir  Charles  Bun- 
bury  *,  Dr.  Fordyce  ^  and  Mr.  Steevens  *. 


'  A  manuscript  account  drawn  by  Dr.  Webster  of  all  the  parishes 
in  Scotland,  ascertaining  their  length,  breadth,  number  of  inhabitants, 
and  distinguishing  Protestants  and  Roman  Catholicks.  This  book 
had  been  transmitted  to  government,  and  Dr.  Johnson  saw  a  copy  of 
it  in  Dr.  Webster's  possession.     Boswell. 

^  Beauclerk,  three  weeks  earlier,  had  written  to  Lord  Charlemont : 
— '  Our  club  has  dwindled  away  to  nothing.  Nobody  attends  but  Mr. 
Chambers,  and  he  is  going  to  the  East  Indies.  Sir  Joshua  and  Gold- 
smith have  got  into  such  a  round  of  pleasures  that  they  have  no  time.' 
Charlemont's  Life,  i.  350.  Johnson,  no  doubt,  had  been  kept  away  by 
illness  {ante,  ii.  312). 

^  Mr.  Fox,  as  Sir  James  Mackintosh  informed  me,  was  brought  in 
by  Burke.     Croker. 

"  Sir  C.  Bunbury  was  the  brother  of  Mr.  H.  W.  Bunbury,  the  carica- 
turist, who  married  Goldsmith's  friend,  the  elder  Miss  Horneck — '  Lit- 
tle Comedy '  as  she  was  called.     Forster's  Goldsinith,  ii.  147. 

^  Rogers  ( Table-  Talk,  p.  23)  tells  how  Dr.  Fordyce,  who  sometimes 
drank  a  good  deal,  was  summoned  to  a  lady  patient  when  he  was  con- 
scious that  he  had  had  too  much  wine.  '  Feeling  her  pulse,  and  find- 
ing himself  unable  to  count  its  beats,  he  muttered,  "  Drunk  by  G — ." 
Next  morning  a  letter  from  her  was  put  into  his  hand.  "  She  too 
well  knew,"  she  wrote,  "  that  he  had  discovered  the  unfortunate  con- 
dition in  which  she  had  been,  and  she  entreated  him  to  keep  the 
matter  secret  in  consideration  of  the  enclosed  (a  hundred -pound 
bank-note)."  * 

^  Steevens  wrote  to  Garrick  on  March  6 :— '  Mr.  C.  Fox  pays  you 
but  a  bad  compliment ;  as  he  appears,  like  the  late  Mr.  Secretary 

'  Return 


Aetat.  65.]     BosweWs  Easter  visits  to  London.  315 

'  Return  my  thanks  to  Dr.  Webster.  Tell  Dr.  Robertson  I  have 
not  much  to  reply  to  his  censure  of  my  negligence ;  and  tell  Dr. 
Blair,  that  since  he  has  written  hither  what  I  said  to  him,  we  must 
now  consider  ourselves  as  even,  forgive  one  another,  and  begin 
again  '„  I  care  not  how  soon,  for  he  is  a  very  pleasing  man.  Pay 
my  compliments  to  all  my  friends,  and  remind  Lord  Elibank  of  his 
promise  to  give  me  all  his  works. 

•  I  hope  ]\Irs.  Boswell  and  little  Miss  are  well. — When  shall  I  see 
them  again  ?  She  is  a  sweet  lady,  only  she  was  so  glad  to  see  me 
go,  that  I  have  almost  a  mind  to  come  again,  that  she  may  again 
have  the  same  pleasure. 

'  Enquire  if  it  be  practicable  to  send  a  small  present  of  a  cask 

of  porter  to  Dunvegan,  Rasay,  and  Col.     I  would  not  wish  to  be 

thought  forgetful  of  civilities. 

'  I  am,  Sir, 

'  Your  humble  servant, 

,,      ,  ,  '  Sam.  Johnson.' 

'March  5,  1774. 

On  the  5th  of  March  I  wrote  to  him,  requesting  his  coun- 
sel whether  I  should  this  spring  come  to  London.  I  stated 
to  him  on  the  one  hand  some  pecuniary  embarrassments, 
which,  together  with  my  wife's  situation  at  that  time,  made 
me  hesitate ;  and,  on  the  other,  the  pleasure  and  improve- 
ment which  my  annual  visit  to  the  metropolis  always  afford- 
ed me ;  and  particularly  mentioned  a  peculiar  satisfaction 
which  I  experienced  in  celebrating  the  festival  of  Easter  in 
St.  Paul's  cathedral ;  that  to  my  fancy  it  appeared  like  go- 
ing up  to  Jerusalem  at  the  feast  of  the  Passover ;  and  that 

Morris,  to  enter  the  society  at  a  time  when  he  has  nothing  else  to  do. 
If  the  bo}i  toti  should  prove  a  contagious  disorder  among  us,  it  will  be 
curious  to  trace  its  progress.  I  have  already  seen  it  breaking  out  in 
Dr.  G —  [Goldsmith]  under  the  form  of  many  a  waistcoat,  but  I  believe 
Dr.  G —  will  be  the  last  man  in  whom  the  symptoms  of  it  will  be  de- 
tected.' Garrick  Carres,  i.  613.  In  less  than  a  month  poor  Goldsmith 
was  dead.  Fox,  just  before  his  election  to  the  club,  had  received 
through  one  of  the  door-keepers  of  the  House  of  Commons  the  fol- 
lowing note  :— '  Sir, — His  Majesty  has  thought  proper  to  order  a  new 
commission  of  the  Treasury  to  be  made  out,  in  which  I  do  not  per- 
ceive your  name.     North.' 

'  See  Boswell 's  answer,  jZ^<?^/,  May  12. 

the 


3i6  BosweWs  Easter  visits  to  London.     [a.d.1774. 

the  strong  devotion  which  I  felt  on  that  occasion  diffused 
its  influence  on  my  mind  through  the  rest  of  the  year'. 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 

{Not  dati'd'^,  hit  written  about 
the  I  z^th  of  March.] 

'Dear  Sir, 

'  I  am  ashamed  to  think  that  since  I  received  your  letter  I 
have  passed  so  many  days  without  answering  it. 

*I  think  there  is  no  great  difficulty  in  resolving  your  doubts. 
The  reasons  for  which  you  are  inclined  to  visit  London,  are,  I 
think,  not  of  sufficient  strength  to  answer  the  objections.  That 
you  should  delight  to  come  once  a  year  to  the  fountain  of  intel- 
ligence and  pleasure,  is  very  natural ;  but  both  information  and 
pleasure  must  be  regulated  by  propriety.  Pleasure,  which  cannot 
be  obtained  but  by  unseasonable  or  unsuitable  expence,  must  al- 
ways end  in  pain ;  and  pleasure,  which  must  be  enjoyed  at  the 
expence  of  another's  pain,  can  never  be  such  as  a  worthy  mind 
can  fully  delight  in. 

'  What  improvement  you  might  gain  by  coming  to  London,  you 
may  easily  supply,  or  easily  compensate,  by  enjoining  yourself 
some  particular  study  at  home,  or  opening  some  new  avenue  to  in- 
formation. Edinburgh  is  not  yet  exhausted ;  and  I  am  sure  you 
will  find  no  pleasure  here  which  can  deserve  either  that  you  should 
anticipate  any  part  of  your  future  fortune,  or  that  you  should  con- 
demn yourself  and  your  lady  to  penurious  frugality  for  the  rest  of 
the  year. 

'  I  need  not  tell  you  what  regard  you  owe  to  Mrs.  Boswell's  en- 
treaties ;  or  how  much  you  ought  to  study  the  happiness  of  her 
who  studies  yours  with  so  much  diligence,  and  of  whose  kindness 
you  enjoy  svich  good  effects.  Life  cannot  subsist  in  society  but 
by  reciprocal  concessions.  She  permitted  you  to  ramble  last  year, 
you  must  permit  her  now  to  keep  you  at  home. 

'  Your  last  reason  is  so  serious,  that  I  am  unwilling  to  oppose  it. 
Yet  you  must  remember,  that  your  image  of  worshipping  once  a 
year  in  a  certain  place,  in  imitation  of  the  Jews,  is  but  a  compari- 
son ;  and  simile  non  est  idem;  if  the  annual  resort  to  Jerusalem  was 
a  duty  to  the  Jews,  it  was  a  duty  because  it  was  commanded ;  and 
you  have  no  such  command,  therefore  no  such  duty.  It  may  be 
dangerous  to  receive  too  readily,  and  indulge  too  fondly,  opinions, 

*  S&e.  post,  April  i6,  1775.  ^  See  ante,  i.  141,  note  2. 

from 


Aetat.  65.]  Fancy  and  reason.  317 

from  which,  perhaps,  no  pious  mind  is  wholly  disengaged,  of  local 
sanctity  and  local  devotion.  You  know  what  strange  effects  they 
have  produced  over  a  great  part  of  the  Christian  world.  I  am  now 
writing,  and  you,  when  you  read  this,  are  reading  under  the  Eye  of 
Omnipresence. 

'  To  what  degree  fancy  is  to  be  admitted  into  religious  offices,  it 
would  require  much  deliberation  to  determine.  I  am  far  from  in- 
tending totally  to  exclude  it.  Fancy  is  a  faculty  bestowed  by  our 
Creator,  and  it  is  reasonable  that  all  His  gifts  should  be  used  to 
His  glory,  that  all  our  faculties  should  co-operate  in  His  worship ; 
but  they  are  to  co-operate  according  to  the  will  of  Him  that  gave 
them,  according  to  the  order  which  His  wisdom  has  established. 
As  ceremonies  prudential  or  convenient  are  less  obligatory  than 
positive  ordinances,  as  bodily  worship  is  only  the  token  to  others 
or  ourselves  of  mental  adoration,  so  Fancy  is  always  to  act  in  sub- 
ordination to  Reason.  We  may  take  Fancy  for  a  companion,  but 
must  follow  Reason  as  our  guide.  We  may  allow  Fancy  to  sug- 
gest certain  ideas  in  certain  places ;  but  Reason  must  always  be 
heard,  when  she  tells  us,  that  those  ideas  and  those  places  have  no 
natural  or  necessary  relation.  When  we  enter  a  church  we  habit- 
ually recall  to  mind  the  duty  of  adoration,  but  we  must  not  omit 
adoration  for  want  of  a  temple  ;  because  we  know,  and  ought  to 
remember,  that  the  Universal  Lord  is  every  where  present ;  and 
that,  therefore,  to  come  to  Jona  \  or  to  Jerusalem,  though  it  may  be 
useful,  cannot  be  necessary. 

'  Thus  I  have  answered  your  letter,  and  have  not  answered  it  neg- 
ligently.    I  love  you  too  well  to  be  careless  when  you  are  serious. 

'  I  think  I  shall  be  very  diligent  next  week  about  our  travels, 
which  I  have  too  long  neglected. 

'  I  am,  dear  Sir, 

'  Your  most,  &c., 

'  Sam,  Johnson.' 

'  Compliments  to  Madam  and  Miss.' 

To  THE  Same. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  The  lady  who  delivers  this  has  a  lawsuit,  in  which  she  desires 
to  make  use  of  your  skill  and  eloquence,  and  she  seems  to  think 
that  she  shall  have  something  more  of  both  for  a  recommendation 
from  me ;  which,  though  I  know  how  little  you  want  any  external 

'  lona. 

incitement 


J 


1 8       Lord  Hailes's  Annals  of  Scotland,  [a.d.  1774, 


incitement  to  your  duty,  I  could  not  refuse  her,  because  I  know 

that  at  least  it  will  not  hurt  her,  to  tell  you  that  I  wish  her  well. 

'  I  am.  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'May  10,  1774.' 

'  Mr.  Boswell  to  Dr.  Johnson. 

'  Edinburgh,  May  12,  1774. 

'  Lord  Hailes  has  begged  of  me  to  offer  you  his  best  respects, 
and  to  transmit  to  you  specimens  of  Annals  of  Scotlatid,  frofn  the 
Accession  of  Malcolm  Kemnore  io  the  Death  of  yajjies  V,  in  drawing 
up  which,  his  Lordship  has  been  engaged  for  some  time.  His 
Lordship  writes  to  me  thus :  "  If  I  could  procure  Dr.  Johnson's 
criticisms,  they  would  be  of  great  use  to  me  in  the  prosecution  of 
my  work,  as  they  would  be  judicious  and  true.  I  have  no  right  to 
ask  that  favour  of  him.     If  you  could,  it  would  highly  oblige  me." 

'  Dr.  Blair  requests  you  may  be  assured  that  he  did  not  write  to 
London  what  you  said  to  him,  and  that  neither  by  word  nor  letter 
has  he  made  the  least  complaint  of  you ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  has 
a  high  respect  for  you,  and  loves  you  much  more  since  he  saw  you 
in  Scotland.  It  would  both  divert  and  please  you  to  see  his  eager- 
ness about  this  matter.' 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 

'  Streatham,  June  21,  1774. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  Yesterday  I  put  the  first  sheets  of  the  yourney  to  the  Hebrides 
to  the  press.  I  have  endeavoured  to  do  you  some  justice  in  the 
first  paragraph'.     It  will  be  one  volume  in  octavo,  not  thick. 

'  It  will  be  proper  to  make  some  presents  in  Scotland.  You 
shall  tell  me  to  whom  I  shall  give  ;  and  I  have  stipulated  twenty- 
five  for  you  to  give  in  your  own  name  ^.  Some  will  take  the  present 
better  from  me,  others  better  from  you.     In  this,  you  who  are  to 

'  '  I  was  induced,'  he  says,  'to  undertake  the  journey  by  finding  in 
Mr.  Boswell  a  companion,  whose  acuteness  would  help  my  inquiry, 
and  whose  gaiety  of  conversation  and  civility  of  manneis  are  suffi- 
cient to  counteract  the  inconveniences  of  travel  in  countries  less  hos- 
pitable than  we  have  passed.'  Quoted  by  Boswell  in  his  Hebrides, 
Aug.  18, 1773. 

"  StQ^ost,  Nov.  16, 1776. 

live 


Aetat.  65.]  GolcismitJis  death.  319 

live  in  the  place  ought  to  direct.  Consider  it.  Whatever  you  can 
get  for  my  purpose  send  me ,  and  make  my  compliments  to  your 
lady  and  both  the  young  ones. 

'  I  am,  Sir,  your,  &c., 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 

*  Mr.  Boswell  to  Dr.  Johnson. 

'  Edinburgh,  June  24,  1774. 

'You  do  not  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  the  various  packets 
which  I  have  sent  to  you.  Neither  can  I  prevail  with  you  to  answer 
my  letters,  though  you  honour  me  with  rdiDms '.  You  have  said 
nothing  to  me  about  poor  Goldsmith  ^  nothing  about  Langton  '\ 

'  I  have  received  for  you,  from  the  Society  for  propagating 
Christian  Knowledge  in  Scotland  \  the  following  Erse  books  : — 
The  New  Testament;  Baxters  Call;  The  Confession  of  Faith  of  the 
Assembly  of  Divines  at  Westminster;  The  Mothers  Catechism;  A 
Gaclick  and  English  Vocabulary  ^' 


'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  I  wish  you  could  have  looked  over  my  book  before  the  printer, 
but  it  could  not  easily  be.  I  suspect  some  mistakes  ;  but  as  I  deal, 
perhaps,  more  in  notions  than  in  facts,  the  matter  is  not  great,  and 
the  second  edition  will  be  mended,  if  any  such  there  be.  The  press 
will  go  on  slowly  for  a  time,  because  I  am  going  into  Wales  to- 
morrow. 

'  I  should  be  very  sorry  if  I  appeared  to  treat  such  a  character  as 

'  Boswell  wrote  to  Temple  on  May  8,  1779:—'  I  think  Dr.  Johnson 
never  answered  but  three  of  my  letters,  though  I  have  had  numerous 
returns  from  him.'     Letters  of  Boszvell,  p.  243.     See  fiost,  Sept.  29,  1777. 

*  Dr.  Goldsmith  died  April  4,  this  year.  Boswell.  Boswell  wrote 
to  Garrick  on  April  11,  1774  : — '  Dr.  Goldsmith's  death  would  affect  all 
the  club  much.  I  have  not  been  so  much  affected  with  any  event  that 
has  happened  of  a  long  time.  I  wish  you  would  give  me,  who  am  at 
a  distance,  some  particulars  with  regard  to  his  last  appearance.'  Gar- 
rick Cor  res.  i.  622. 

^  See  ante,  ii.  304. 

*  See  ante,  ii.  30,  and  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Oct.  29,  1773. 

"  These  books  Dr.  Johnson  presented  to  the  Bodleian  Library. 
Boswell. 

Lord 


320  Walton's  Lives.  [a.d.  1774. 

Lord  Hailes  otherwise  than  with  high  respect.  I  return  the  sheets  ', 
to  which  I  have  clone  what  mischief  I  could ;  and  finding  it  so  lit- 
tle, thought  not  much  of  sending  them.  The  narrative  is  clear, 
lively,  and  short. 

'  I  have  done  worse  to  Lord  Hailes  than  by  neglecting  his 
sheets  :  I  have  run  him  in  debt.  Dr.  Home,  the  President  of 
Magdalen  College  in  Oxford,  wrote  to  me  about  three  months  ago, 
that  he  purposed  to  reprint  Walton's  Lives,  and  desired  me  to  con- 
tribute to  the  work  :  my  answer  was,  that  Lord  Hailes  intended 
the  same  publication ;  and  Dr.  Home  has  resigned  it  to  him "'. 
His  Lordship  must  now  think  seriously  about  it. 

'  Of  poor  dear  Dr.  Goldsmith  there  is  little  to  be  told,  more  than 
the  papers  have  made  publick.  He  died  of  a  fever,  made,  I  am 
afraid,  more  violent  by  uneasiness  of  mind.  His  debts  began  to 
be  heavy,  and  all  his  resources  were  exhausted.  Sir  Joshua  ^  is  of 
opinion  that  he  owed  not  less  than  two  thousand  pounds  *.  Was 
ever  poet  so  trusted  before  ? 

*  You  may,  if  you  please,  put  the  inscription  thus  : — 

''''Maria  Sco forum  Regina  nata  15 — ,  a  suis  in  cxiliiim  acta  15 — , 
ab  hospita  neci  data  15 — ."     You  must  find  the  years. 

'  Of  your  second  daughter  you  certainly  gave  the  account  your- 
self, though  you  have  forgotten  it.     While  Mrs.  Boswell  is  well, 

'  On  the  cover  enclosmg  them,  Dr.  Johnson  wrote, '  If  my  delay  has 
given  any  reason  for  supposing  that  I  have  not  a  very  deep  sense  of 
the  honour  done  me  by  asking  my  judgement,  I  am  very  sorry.'  Bos- 
well. 

^  '$>t^  post,  March  20,  1776. 

^  '  Sir  Joshua  was  much  affected  by  the  death  of  Goldsmith,  to 
whom  he  had  been  a  very  sincere  friend.  He  did  not  touch  the  pen- 
cil for  that  day,  a  circumstance  most  extraordinary  for  him  who  passed 
no  day  without  a  line!     Northcote's  Reynolds,  i.  325. 

^  He  owed  his  tailor  ^79,  though  he  had  paid  him  £\\o  in  1773.  In 
this  payment  was  included  ^35  for  his  nephew's  clothes.  We  find 
such  entries  in  his  own  bills  as — 

L   s.  d 

To  Tyrian  bloom  satin  grain  and  garter  blue  silk  breeches     827 
To  Queen's-blue  dress  suit  -----------11170 

To  your  blue  velvet  suit  -    -----------  21   10    9 

(See  ante,  ii.  95.)  Filby's  son  said  to  Mr.  Prior  : — '  My  father  attrib- 
uted no  blame  to  Goldsmith  ;  he  had  been  a  good  customer,  and  had 
he  lived  would  have  paid  every  farthing.'     Prior's  Goldstnith,  ii.  232. 

never 


Aetat.  65.]  GoldsmitJis  death.  321 

never  doubt  of  a  boy.     Mrs.  Thrale  brought,  I  think,  five  girls  run- 
ning, but  while  I  was  with  you  she  had  a  boy. 

'  I  am  obliged  to  you  for  all  your  pamphlets,  and  of  the  last  1 
hope  to  make  some  use.     I  made  some  of  the  former. 
'  I  am,  dear  Sir, 

'  Your  most  affectionate  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'July  4,  1774.' 

'  My  compliments  to  all  the  three  ladies.' 

'To  Bennet  Langton,  Esq.,  at  Langton,  near  Spilsby, 
Lincolnshire. 
'  Dear  Sir, 

'  You  have  reason  to  reproach  me  that  I  have  left  your  last 
letter  so  long  unanswered,  but  I  had  nothing  particular  to  say. 
Chambers,  you  find,  is  gone  far,  and  poor  Goldsmith  is  gone  much 
further.  He  died  of  a  fever,  exasperated,  as  I  believe,  by  the  fear 
of  distress.  He  had  raised  money  and  squandered  it,  by  every  ar- 
tifice of  acquisition,  and  folly  of  expence.  But  let  not  his  frailties 
be  remembered  ;  he  was  a  very  great  man  \ 

'  I  have  just  begun  to  print  my  yourney  to  the  Hebrides^  and  am 
leaving  the  press  to  take  another  journey  into  Wales,  whither  Mr. 
Thrale  is  going,  to  take  possession  of,  at  least,  five  hundred  a  year, 
fallen  to  his  lady.     All  at  Streatham,  that  are  alive  ^,  are  well. 

'  '  Soon  after  Goldsmith's  death  certain  persons  dining  with  Sir 
Joshua  commented  rather  freely  on  some  part  of  his  works,  which,  in 
their  opinion,  neither  discovered  talent  nor  originality.  To  this  Dr. 
Johnson  listened  in  his  usual  growling  manner;  when,  at  length,  his 
patience  being  exhausted,  he  rose  with  great  dignity,  looked  them  full 
in  the  face,  and  exclaimed,  "  If  nobody  was  suffered  to  abuse  poor 
Goldy,  but  those  who  could  write  as  v/ell,  he  would  have  few  cen- 
sors." '  Northcote's  Reynolds,  i.  327.  To  Goldsmith  might  be  applied 
the  words  that  Johnson  wrote  of  Savage  {^lVorks,\\\\.  191) : — 'Vanity 
may  surely  be  readily  pardoned  in  him  to  whom  life  afforded  no  other 
comforts  than  barren  praises,  and  the  consciousness  of  deserving  them. 
Those  are  no  proper  judges  of  his  conduct  who  have  slumbered  away 
their  time  on  the  down  of  plenty ;  nor  will  any  wise  man  presume  to 
say,  "  Had  I  been  in  Savage's  condition,  I  should  have  lived  or  written 
better  than  Savage."  ' 

^  Mrs.  Thrale's  mother  died  the  summer  before  (ante,  ii.  302).  Most 
of  her  children  died  early.  By  1777  she  had  lost  seven  out  of  eleven. 
'^t.^  post.  May  3,  1777. 

II. — 21  '  I  have 


322    Johnsons  Greek  epitaph  on  Goldsmith,   [a.d.  1774. 

'  I  have  never  recovered  from  the  last  dreadful  illness ',  but  flat- 
ter myself  that  I  grow  gradually  better ;  much,  however,  yet  remains 
to  mend.      Ki/pte  i\ir]aov  ' . 

'  If  you  have  the  Latin  version  of  Busy,  curious,  thirsty  fly ',  be  so 
kind  as  to  transcribe  and  send  it ;  but  you  need  not  be  in  haste, 
for  I  shall  be  I  know  not  where,  for  at  least  five  weeks.  I  wrote 
the  following  tetastrick  on  poor  Goldsmith  : — 

ToJ'    T(t(pOl'   llaOpUClQ    T()t'     OXifMpoio.       Kovir}v 
"AfpotTi   jdi)   aEfxviiv,  Selve,  ■n-ucecrm   irarti ' 

OJiTt  i^tfirjXe  <pv(Jic^  nerpioy  X"P'Cj  ^PT"  TraAaiwJ', 
KXaUre  7rot/jr/)j',  inropiKov,  (jwtriKVP  . 

'Please  to  make   my  most  respectful  compliments  to   all  the 

^  Johnson  had  not  seen  Langton  since  early  in  the  summer  of  1773. 
He  was  then  suffering  from  a  fever  and  an  inflammation  in  the  eye, 
for  which  he  was  twice  copiously  bled.  {Pr.  and  Med.  130.)  The  fol- 
lowing winter  he  was  distressed  by  a  cough.  {lb.  p.  135.)  Neither  of 
these  illnesses  was  severe  enough  to  be  called  dreadful.  In  the  spring 
of  1770  he  was  very  ill.  (Jb.  p.  93.)  On  Sept.  18,  1 771,  he  records: — 
'  For  the  last  year  I  have  been  slowly  recovering  from  the  violence  of 
my  last  illness.'  {lb.  p.  104.)  On  April  18,  1772,  in  reviewing  the  last 
year,  he  writes  : — '  An  unpleasing  incident  is  almost  certain  to  hinder 
my  rest ;  this  is  the  remainder  of  my  last  illness.'  {lb.  p.  in.)  In  the 
winter  of  1772-3,  he  suffered  from  a  cough.  {lb.  p.  121.)  I  think  that 
he  must  mean  the  illness  of  1770,  though  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  he 
wrote  to  Boswell  on  July  5,  1773  •— '  Except  this  eye  [the  inflamed  eye] 
I  am  very  well.'  (See  ante,  ii.  303.) 
^  '  Lord  have  mercy  upon  us.' 

^  See  Johnson's  Works,  i.  172,  for  his  Latin  version.  D'Israeli  {Cu- 
riosities of  Literature,  ed.  ^834,  vi.  368)  says 'that  Oldys  \a7itc,  i.  202] 
always  asserted  that  he  was  the  author  of  this  song,  and  as  he  was  a 
rigid  lover  of  truth  I  doubt  not  that  he  wrote  it.  I  have  traced  it 
through  a  dozen  of  collections  since  the  year  1740,  the  first  in  which 
I  find  it. 

*  Mr.  Seward  {Anec.  ii.  466)  gives  the  following  version  of  these 
lines : — 

'  Whoe'er  thou  art  with  reverence  tread 

Where  Goldsmith's  letter 'd  dust  is  laid. 

If  nature  and  the  historic  page, 

If  the  sweet  muse  thy  care  engage, 

Lament  him  dead  whose  powerful  mind 

Their  various  energies  combined.' 

ladies, 


Aetat.  65.]    On  a  portrait  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots.   323 

ladies,  and  remember  me  to  young  George  and  his  sisters.    I  reckon 

George  begins  to  shew  a  pair  of  heels. 

'  Do  not  be  sullen  now ',  but  let  me  find  a  letter  when  I  come 

back. 

'  I  am,  dear  Sir, 

'  Your  affectionate,  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson,' 
'July  5,  1 774-' 

'To  Mr.  Robert  Levet. 

'  Llewenny\  in  Denbighshire,  Aug.  i6,  1774. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  Mr.  Thrale's  affairs  have  kept  him  here  a  great  while,  nor  do 
I  know  exactly  when  we  shall  come  hence.  I  have  sent  you  a  bill 
upon  Mr.  Strahan. 

'  I  have  made  nothing  of  the  Ipecacuanha,  but  have  taken  abun- 
dance of  pills,  and  hope  that  they  have  done  me  good. 

'  Wales,  so  far  as  I  have  yet  seen  of  it,  is  a  very  beautiful  and  rich 

country,  all  enclosed,  and  planted.     Denbigh  is  not  a  mean  town. 

Make  my  compliments  to  all  my  friends,  and  tell  Frank  I  hope  he 

remembers  my  advice.    When  his  money  is  out,  let  him  have  more. 

'  I  am.  Sir, 

'  Your  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 

'Mr.  Boswell  to  Dr.  Johnson. 

'  Edinburgh,  Aug.  30,  1774. 
'You  have  given  me  an  inscription  for  a  portrait  of  Mary 
Queen  of  Scots,  in  which  you,  in  a  short  and  striking  manner, 
point  out  her  hard  fate.  But  you  will  be  pleased  to  keep  in  mind, 
that  my  picture  is  a  representation  of  a  particular  scene  in  her 
history ;  her  being  forced  to  resign  her  crown,  while  she  was  im- 
prisoned in  the  castle  of  Lochlevin.  I  must,  therefore,  beg  that 
you  will  be  kind  enough  to  give  me  an  inscription  suited  to  that 

'  See  ante,  ii.  304. 

"  At  Lleweney,  the  house  of  Mrs.  Thrale's  cousin,  Mr.  Cotton,  Dr. 
Johnson  stayed  nearly  three  weeks.  Johnson's  Journey  into  North 
Wales,  July  28,  1774.  Mr.  Fitzmauricc,  Lord  Shclburnc's  brother,  had 
a  house  there  in  1780;  for  Johnson  wrote  to  Mrs.  Thrale  on  May  7  of 
that  year  : — '  He  has  almost  made  me  promise  to  pass  part  of  the  sum- 
mer at  Llcwenny.'     Piozzi  Letters,  ii.  1 13. 

particular 


324        Johnson  s  notes  on  Manes' s  Annals,    [a.d.  1774. 

particular  scene ;  or  determine  which  of  the  two  formerly  trans- 
mitted to  you  is  the  best ;  and,  at  any  rate,  favour  me  with  an  Eng- 
lish translation.  It  will  be  doubly  kind  if  you  comply  with  my 
request  speedily. 

'  Your  critical  notes  on  the  specimen  of  Lord  Hailes's  Annals 
pf  Scotland  are  excellent.  I  agreed  with  you  in  every  one  of  them. 
JHe  himself  objected  only  to  the  alteration  oi  free  to  brave,  in  the 
passage  where  he  says  that  Edward  "  departed  with  the  glory  due 
to  the  conquerour  of  a  free  people."  He  says,  "  to  call  the  Scots 
brave  would  only  add  to  the  glory  of  their  conquerour."  You  will 
make  allowance  for  the  national  zeal  of  our  annalist.  I  now  send 
a  few  more  leaves  of  the  Annals,  which  I  hope  you  will  peruse, 
and  return  with  observations,  as  you  did  upon  the  former  occa- 
sion. Lord  Hailes  writes  to  me  thus  : — "  Mr.  Boswell  will  be 
pleased  to  express  the  grateful  sense  which  Sir  David  Dalrymple ' 
has  of  Dr.  Johnson's  attention  to  his  little  specimen.  The  further 
specimen  will  show,  that 

"Even  in  an  Edward Yvq  can  see  desert ^" 

'  It  gives  me  much  pleasure  to  hear  that  a  republication  of  Isaac 
Walto7is  Lives  is  intended.  You  have  been  in  a  mistake  in  think- 
ing that  Lord  Hailes  had  it  in  view.  I  remember  one  morning^, 
while  he  sat  with  you  in  my  house,  he  said,  that  there  should  be  a 
new  edition  of  Walton's  Lives;  and  you  said  that  "they  should  be 
benoted  a  little."  This  was  all  that  passed  on  that  subject.  You 
must,  therefore,  inform  Dr.  Home,  that  he  may  resume  his  plan. 
I  enclose  a  note  concerning  it ;  and  if  Dr.  Home  will  write  to  me, 
all  the  attention  that  I  can  give  shall  be  cheerfully  bestowed, 
upon  what  I  think  a  pious  work,  the  preservation  and  elucidation 
of  Walton,  by  whose  writings  I  have  been  most  pleasingly  edified.' 


'  Lord  Hailes  was  Sir  David  Dalrymple.  See  a7ite,  i.  310.  He  is  not 
to  be  confounded  with  Sir  John  Dalrj^mple,  mentioned  ante,  ii.  241. 

'  '  E'en  in  a  bishop  I  can  spy  desert ; 

Seeker  is  decent,  Rundel  has  a  heart.' 

Pope's  Epilogue  to  the  Satires,  ii.  70. 

'  In  the  first  two  editions  forenoon.  Boswell,  In  three  other  pas- 
sages, made  the  same  change  in  the  third  edition.  Forenoon  perhaps 
he  considered  a  Scotticism.  The  correction  above  being  made  in  one 
of  his  letters,  renders  it  likely  that  he  corrected  them  before  publi- 
cation. 

'  Mr.  Boswell 


Aetat.  C5.]  Johnsons  to2ir  to  Wales.  325 

'Mr.  Boswell  to  Dr.  Johnson. 

'  Edinburgh,  Sept.  16,  1774. 
'Wales  has  probably  detained  you  longer  than  I  supposed. 
You  will  have  become  quite  a  mountaineer,  by  visiting  Scotland 
one  year  and  Wales  another.  You  must  next  go  to  Switzerland. 
Cambria  will  complain,  if  you  do  not  honour  her  also  with  some 
remarks.  And  I  find  concesscre  cohunncB ',  the  booksellers  expect 
another  book.  I  am  impatient  to  see  your  Tour  to  Scotland  and 
the  Hebrides^  Might  you  not  send  me  a  copy  by  the  post  as  soon 
as  it  is  printed  off  V 


'  To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  Yesterday  I  returned  from  my  Welch  journey.     I  was  sorry 

to  leave  my  book  suspended  so  long ;  but  having  an  opportunity 

of  seeing,  with  so  much  convenience,  a  new  part  of  the  island,  I 

could  not  reject  it.     I  have  been  in  five  of  the  six  counties  of 

North  \\'ales  ;  and  have  seen  St.  Asaph  and  Bangor,  the  two  seats 

of  their  Bishops ;  have  been  upon  Penmanmaur '  and  Snowdon  ^, 

and  passed  over  into  Anglesea.     But  Wales  is  so  little  different 

from  England,  that  it  offers  nothing  to  the   speculation   of  the 

traveller. 

'  When  I  came  home,  I  found  several  of  your  papers,  with  some 

pages  of  Lord  Hailes's  Annals,  which  I  will  consider.     I  am  in 

'  Horace,  Ars  Poet.  1.  373. 

*  '  Do  not  you  long  to  hear  the  roarings  of  the  old  lion  over  the 
bleak  mountains  of  the  North?'  wrote  Steevens  to  Garrick.  Garrzck 
Carres,  ii.  122. 

'  'Aug.  16.  We  came  to  Penmanmaur  by  daylight,  and  found  a 
way,  lately  made,  verj'  easy  and  very  safe.  It  was  cut  smooth  and 
enclosed  between  parallel  walls ;  the  outer  of  which  secures  the  pas- 
senger from  the  precipice,  which  is  deep  and  dreadful.  .  . .  The  sea 
beats  at  the  bottom  of  the  way.  At  evening  the  moon  shone  emi- 
nently bright ;  and  our  thoughts  of  danger  being  now  past,  the  rest 
of  our  journey  was  very  pleasant.  At  an  hour  somewhat  late  we 
came  to  Bangor,  where  we  found  a  very  mean  inn,  and  had  some  dif- 
culty  to  obtain  lodging.  I  lay  in  a  room  where  the  other  bed  had 
two  men.'     Johnson's yi^//r;?cj  into  North  Wales. 

*  He  did  not  go  to  the  top  of  Snowdon.  He  says : — '  On  the  side 
of  Snowdon  are  the  remains  of  a  large  fort,  to  which  we  climbed  with 
great  labour.     I  was  breathless  and  harassed.'     lb.  Aug.  26. 

haste 


326  Johnson's  tour  to  Wales.  [a.d.  1774. 

haste  to  give  you  some  account  of  myself,  lest  you  should  suspect 
me  of  negligence  in  the  pressing  business  which  I  find  recom- 
mended to  my  care,  and  which  1  knew  nothing  of  till  now,  when 
all  care  is  vain  '. 

'  In  the  distribution  of  my  books  I  purpose  to  follow  your  ad- 
vice, adding  such  as  shall  occur  to  me.  I  am  not  pleased  with 
your  notes  of  remembrance  added  to  your  names,  for  I  hope  I 
shall  not  easily  forget  them. 

'  I  have  received  four  Erse  books,  without  any  direction,  and 
suspect  that  they  are  intended  for  the  Oxford  library.  If  that  is 
the  intention,  I  think  it  will  be  proper  to  add  the  metrical  psalms, 
and  whatever  else  is  printed  in  Erse,  that  the  present  may  be 
complete.     The  donor's  name  should  be  told. 

'  I  Avish  you  could  have  read  the  book  before  it  was  printed,  but 
our  distance  does  not  easily  permit  it. 

'I  am  sorry  Lord  Hailes  does  not  intend  to  publish  Walton;  I 
am  afraid  it  will  not  be  done  so  well,  if  it  be  done  at  all. 

'  I  purpose  now  to  drive  the  book  forward.     Make  my  compli- 
ments to  Mrs.  Boswell,  and  let  me  hear  often  from  you. 
'  I  am,  dear  Sir, 

'  Your  aiTectionate  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 

'  London,  Octob.  i,  1774.' 

This  tour  to  Wales,  which  was  made  in  company  with  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Thrale,  though  it  no  doubt  contributed  to  his  health 
and  amusement,  did  not  give  an  occasion  to  such  a  discur- 
sive exercise  of  his  mind  as  our  tour  to  the  Hebrides.  I  do 
not  find  that  he  kept  any  journal  or  notes  of  what  he  saw 
there  ^  All  that  I  heard  him  say  of  it  was,  that  '  instead  of 
bleak  and  barren  mountains,  there  were  green  and  fertile 
ones ;  and  that  one  of  the  castles  in  Wales  would  contain  all 
the  castles  that  he  had  seen  in  Scotland.' 

Parliament   having  been  dissolved  ^  and  his  friend   Mr. 

*  I  had  written  to  him,  to  request  his  interposition  in  behalf  of  a 
convict,  who  I  thought  was  very  unjustly  condemned.     Boswell. 

"  He  had  kept  a  journal  which  was  edited  by  Mr.  Duppa  in  1816. 
It  will  be  ionn^  post,  in  vol.  v. 

^  'When  the  general  election  broke  up  the  delightful  society  in 
which  we  had  spent  some  time  at  Beconsfield,  Dr.  Johnson  shook  the 
hospitable  master  of  the  house  [Burke]  kindly  by  the  hand,  and  said, 

Thrale, 


Aetat.65.]  ThE  PATRIOT.  327 

Thrale,  who  was  a  steady  supporter  of  government,  having 
again  to  encounter  the  storm  of  a  contested  election,  he 
wrote  a  short  poHtical  pamphlet,  entitled  The  Patriot*  ad- 
dressed to  the  electors  of  Great  -  Britain  ;  a  title  which,  to 
factious  men,  who  consider  a  patriot  only  as  an  opposer  of 
the  measures  of  government,  will  appear  strangely  misap- 
plied. It  was,  however,  written  with  energetick  vivacity ; 
and,  except  those  passages  in  which  it  endeavours  to  vindi- 
cate the  glaring  outrage  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  the 
case  of  the  Middlesex  election,  and  to  justify  the  attempt  to 
reduce  our  fellow-subjects  in  America  to  unconditional  sub- 
mission, it  contained  an  admirable  display  of  the  properties 
of  a  real  patriot,  in  the  original  and  genuine  sense; — a  sin- 
cere, steady,  rational,  and  unbiassed  friend  to  the  interests 
and  prosperity  of  his  King  and  country.  It  must  be  ac- 
knowledged, however,  that  both  in  this  and  his  two  former 
pamphlets,  there  was,  amidst  many  powerful  arguments,  not 
only  a  considerable  portion  of  sophistry,  but  a  contemptu- 
ous ridicule  of  his  opponents,  which  was  very  provoking. 

'To  Mr.  Perkins'. 
'Sir, 

'You  may  do   me    a  very  great   favour.      Mrs.  Williams,  a 

"  Farewell  my  dear  Sir,  and  remember  that  I  wish  you  all  the  success 
which  ought  to  be  wished  you,  which  can  possibly  be  wished  you  in- 
deed— by  an  honest  man."  '  Piozzi's  Anec.  p.  242.  The  dissolution 
was  on  Sept.  30.  Johnson,  with  the  Thrales,  as  hXs/ournal  shows,  had 
arrived  at  Beconsfield  on  the  24th.  See  ante,  ii.  255,  for  Johnson's 
opinion  of  Burke's  honesty. 

'  Mr.  Perkins  was  for  a  number  of  years  the  worthy  superintendent 
of  Mr.  Thrale's  great  brewery,  and  after  his  death  became  one  of  the 
proprietors  of  it ;  and  now  resides  in  Mr.  Thrale's  house  in  Southwark, 
which  was  the  scene  of  so  many  literary  meetings,  and  in  which  he 
continues  the  liberal  hospitality  for  which  it  was  eminent.  Dr.  John- 
son esteemed  him  much.  He  hung  up  in  the  counting-house  a  fine 
proof  of  the  admirable  mezzotinto  of  Dr.  Johnson,  by  Doughty;  and 
when  Mrs.  Thrale  asked  him  somewhat  flippantly, '  Why  do  you  put 
him  up  in  the  counting-house  ?'  he  answered, '  Because,  Madam,  I  wish 
to  have  one  wise  man  there.'  '  Sir,'  (said  Johnson,)  '  I  thank  you.  It 
is  a  very  handsome  compliment,  and  I  believe  you  speak  sincerely.' 

BOSWELL. 

gentlewoman 


328  A  Sonthwark  election.  [a.d.  1774. 

gentlewoman  whom  you  may  have  seen  at  Mr.  Thrale's,  is  a  peti- 
tioner for  Mr.  Hetherington's  charity  :  petitions  are  this  day  issued 
at  Christ's  Hospital. 

'  I  am  a  bad  manager  of  business  in  a  crowd ;  and  if  I  should 
send  a  mean  man,  he  may  be  put  away  without  his  errand.  I 
must  therefore  intreat  that  you  will  go,  and  ask  for  a  petition  for 
Anna  Williams,  whose  paper  of  enquiries  was  delivered  with  an- 
swers at  the  counting-house  of  the  hospital  on  Thursday  the  20th. 
My  servant  will  attend  you  thither,  and  bring  the  petition  home 
when  you  have  it. 

'  The  petition,  which  they  are  to  give  us,  is  a  form  which  they 
deliver  to  every  petitioner,  and  which  the  petitioner  is  afterwards 
to  fill  up,  and  return  to  them  again.  This  we  must  have,  or  we 
cannot  proceed  according  to  their  directions.  You  need,  I  believe, 
only  ask  for  a  petition  ;  if  they  enquire  for  whom  you  ask,  you  can 
tell  them. 

'  I  beg  pardon  for  giving  you  this  trouble  ;  but  it  is  a  matter  of 

great  importance. 

'  I  am.  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'October  25,  1774.' 

'  To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
,    *  Dear  Sir, 

'There  has   appeared  lately  in  the  papers  an  account  of  a 

boat  overset  between  Mull  and  Ulva,  in  which  many  passengers 

were  lost,  and  among  them  Maclean  of  Col.     We,  you  know,  were 

once  drowned ' ;  I  hope,  therefore,  that  the  story  is  either  wantonly 

or  erroneously  told.     Pray  satisfy  me  by  the  next  post. 

'  I  have  printed  two  hundred  and  forty  pages.  I  am  able  to  do 
nothing  much  worth  doing  to  dear  Lord  Hailes's  book.  I  will, 
however,  send  back  the  sheets ;  and  hope,  by  degrees,  to  answer 
all  your  reasonable  expectations. 

'  Mr.  Thrale  has  happily  surmounted  a  very  violent  and  acri- 
monious opposition " ,   but  all  joys  have  their  abatement :    Mrs. 

'  In  the  news-papers.     Boswell. 

*  'Oct.  16,  1774.  In  Southwark  there  has  been  outrageoas  rioting; 
but  I  neither  know  the  candidates,  their  connections,  nor  success.' 
Horace  Walpole's  Letters,  \\.  134.  Of  one  Southwark  election  Mrs. 
Piozzi  writes  (^«^£-.  p.  214) : — 'A  Borough  election  once  showed  me 
Mr.  Johnson's  toleration  of  boisterous  mirth.     A  rough  fellow,  a  hat- 

Thrale 


Aetat.  65.]  VottJig  Col's  death.  329 

Thrale  has  fallen  from  her  horse,  and  hurt  herself  very  much. 

The  rest  of  our  friends,  I  believe,  are  well.     My  compliments  to 

Mrs.  Boswell. 

'  I  am,  Sir, 

'  Your  most  affectionate  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  London,  Octob.  27,  1774.' 

This  letter,  which  shews  his  tender  concern  for  an  amiable 
young  gentleman  to  whom  he  had  been  very  much  obliged 
in  the  Hebrides,  I  have  inserted  according  to  its  date,  though 
before  receiving  it  I  had  informed  him  of  the  melancholy 
event  that  the  young  Laird  of  Col  was  unfortunately 
drowned '. 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  Last  night  I  corrected  the  last  page  of  our  journey  to  the 
Hebrides.  The  printer  has  detained  it  all  this  time,  for  I  had, 
before  I  went  into  Wales,  written  all  except  two  sheets.  The  Pa- 
triot was  called  for  by  my  political  friends  on  Friday,  was  written 
on  Saturday,  and  I  have  heard  little  of  it.  So  vague  are  conject- 
ures at  a  distance  ^  As  soon  as  I  can,  I  will  take  care  that  copies 
be  sent  to  you,  for  I  would  wish  that  they  might  be  given  before 
they  are  bought ;  but  I  am  afraid  that  Mr.  Strahan  will  send  to 
you  and  to  the  booksellers  at  the  same  time.  Trade  is  as  diligent 
as  courtesy.  I  have  mentioned  all  that  you  recommended.  Pray 
make  my  compliments  to  Mrs.  Boswell  and  the  younglings.  The 
club  has,  I  think,  not  yet  met. 

ter  by  trade,  seeing  his  beaver  in  a  state  of  decay  seized  it  suddenly 
with  one  hand,  and  clapping  him  on  the  back  with  the  other,  "  Ah, 
Master  Johnson,"  says  he,  "  this  is  no  time  to  be  thinking  about 
hats."  "  No,  no.  Sir,"  replies  our  Doctor  in  a  cheerful  tone,  "  hats  are 
of  no  use  now,  as  you  say,  except  to  throw  up  in  the  air  and  huzza 
with,"  accompanying  his  words  with  the  true  election  halloo.' 

'  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Oct.  19, 1773.  Johnson  thus  mentions  him 
{^Works,  ix.  142); — 'Here  we  had  the  last  embrace  of  this  amiable 
man,  who,  while  these  pages  were  preparing  to  attest  his  virtues,  per- 
ished in  the  passage  between  Ulva  and  Inch  Kenneth.' 

^  Alluding  to  a  passage  in  a  letter  of  mine,  where  speaking  of  his 
/ottnicy  to  the  Hebrides,  I  say,  '  But  has  not  The  Patriot  been  an  inter- 
ruption, by  the  time  taken  to  write  it,  and  the  time  luxuriously  spent 
in  listening  to  its  applauses  ?'     Boswell. 

'  Tell 


330  Mr.  Hooles  Cleonice.  [a.d.  1774. 

'  Tell  me,  and  tell  me  honestly,  what  you  think  and  what  others 

say  of  our  travels.     Shall  we  touch  the  continent '  ? 

'  I  am,  dear  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'Nov.  26, 1774.' 

In  his  manuscript  diary  of  this  year,  there  is  the  following 
entry : — 

'Nov.  27.  Advent  Sunday.  I  considered  that  this  day,  being 
the  beginning  of  the  ecclesiastical  year,  was  a  proper  time  for  a 
new  course  of  life.  I  began  to  read  the  Greek  Testament  regu- 
larly at  160  verses  every  Sunday.     This  day  I  began  the  Acts. 

'  In  this  week  I  read  Virgil's  Pastorals.  I  learned  to  repeat  the 
Pollio  and  Gallus.     I  read  carelessly  the  first  Georgick.' 

Such  evidences  of  his  unceasing  ardour,  both  for  '  divine 
and  human  lore,'  when  advanced  into  his  sixty-fifth  year, 
and  notwithstanding  his  many  disturbances  from  disease, 
must  make  us  at  once  honour  his  spirit,  and  lament  that  it 
should  be  so  grievously  clogged  by  its  material  tegument. 
It  is  remarkable,  that  he  was  very  fond  of  the  precision 
which  calculation  produces ^  Thus  we  find  in  one  of  his 
manuscript  diaries, '  12  pages  in  4to.  Gr.  Test,  and  30  pages 
in  Beza's  folio,  comprize  the  whole  in  40  days.' 

'Dr.  Johnson  to  John  Hoole,  Esq'. 

'  Dear  Sir, 

'  I  have  returned  your  play  *,  which  you  will  find  underscored 

'  We  had  projected  a  voyage  together  up  the  Baltick,  and  talked  of 
visiting  some  of  the  more  northern  regions.  Boswell.  See  Boswell's 
Hebrides,  Sept.  i6. 

"^  See  anU\  i.  83. 

^  John  Hoole,  the  son  of  a  London  watchmaker,  was  born  in  Dec. 
1727,  and  died  on  Aug.  2,  1803.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  he  was  placed 
as  a  clerk  in  the  East-India  House ;  but,  like  his  successors,  James 
and  John  Stuart  Mill,  he  was  an  author  as  well  as  a  clerk.     See  ante, 

i-443- 

*  Cleomce.  Boswell.  Nichols  {Lz't.  Aftec.  ii.  407)  says  that  as  Cleo- 
nice  was  a  failure  on  the  stage '  Mr.  Hoole  returned  a  considerable 

with 


Aetat.  06.]  Mrs.  Charlotte  Lennox.  331 

with  red,  where  there  was  a  word  which  I  did  not  like.  The  red 
will  be  washed  off  with  a  little  water. 

'  The  plot  is  so  well  framed,  the  intricacy  so  artful,  and  the  dis- 
entanglement so  easy,  the  suspense  so  affecting,  and  the  passionate 
parts  so  properly  interposed,  that  I  have  no  doubt  of  its  success. 
'  I  am,  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  December  19, 1774.' 

1775  :  ^TAT.  ^6^ — The  first  effort  of  his  pen  in  1775  was, 
'  Proposals  for  publishing  the  Works  of  Mrs.  Charlotte 
Lennox  Vt  in  three  volumes  quarto.  In  his  diary,  Janua- 
ry 2,  I  find  this  entry :  *  Wrote  Charlotte's  Proposals.'  But, 
indeed,  the  internal  evidence  would  have  been  quite  suffi- 
cient. Her  claim  to  the  favour  of  the  publick  was  thus 
enforced  : — 

'  Most  of  the  pieces,  as  they  appeared  singly,  have  been  read  with 
approbation,  perhaps  above  their  merits,  but  of  no  great  advantage 
to  the  writer.  She  hopes,  therefore,  that  she  shall  not  be  considered 
as  too  indulgent  to  vanity,  or  too  studious  of  interest,  if,  from  that 
labour  which  has  hitherto  been  chiefly  gainful  to  others,  she  endeav- 
ours to  obtain  at  last  some  profit  for  herself  and  her  children.  She 
cannot  decently  enforce  her  claim  by  the  praise  of  her  own  per- 
formances ;  nor  can  she  suppose,  that,  by  the  most  artful  and 
laboured  address,  any  additional  notice  could  be  procured  to  a 
publication,  of  which  Her  Majesty  has  condescended  to  be  the 
Patroness.' 

He  this  year  also  wrote  the  Preface  to  Baretti's  Easy  Les- 
sons in  Italian  arid  English  '*'.f 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  You  never  did  ask  for  a  book  by  the  post  till  now,  and  I  did 

part  of  the  money  which  he  had  received  for  the  copy-rigiit,  alleging 
that,  as  the  piece  was  not  successful  on  the  stage,  it  could  not  be  very 
profitable  to  the  bookseller,  and  ought  not  to  be  a  loss.' 

■  See  atite,  1.  296. 

^  S^Q.  post,  March  20, 1776. 

not 


332         The  King  reads  Johnsons  Journey,    [a.d.  1775. 

not  think  on  it.     You  see  now  it  is  done.     I  sent  one  to  the  King, 
and  I  hear  he  hkes  it '. 

'  I  shall  send  a  parcel  into  Scotland  for  presents,  and  intend  to 
give  to  many  of  my  friends.  In  your  catalogue  you  left  out  Lord 
Auchinleck. 

'  Let  me  know,  as  fast  as  you  read  it,  how  you  like  it ;  and  let 
me  know  if  any  mistake  is  committed,  or  any  thing  important  left 
out.     I  wish  you  could  have  seen  the  sheets.     My  compliments  to 
Mrs.  Boswell,  and  to  Veronica  \  and  to  all  my  friends. 
'  I  am.  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'January  14,  1775.' 

'  Mr.  Boswell  to  Dr.  Johnson. 

'  Edinburgh,  Jan.  19,  1775. 
'  Be  pleased  to  accept  of  my  best  thanks  for  your  journey  to 
the  Hebrides,  which  came  to  me  by  last  night's  post.  I  did  really 
ask  the  favour  twice  ;  but  you  have  been  even  with  me  by  granting 
it  so  speedily.  Bis  dat  qui  cito  dat  \  Though  ill  of  a  bad  cold, 
you  kept  me  up  the  greatest  part  of  the  last  night ;  for  I  did  not 
stop  till  I  had  read  every  word  of  your  book.  I  looked  back  to 
our  first  talking  of  a  visit  to  the  Hebrides,  which  was  many  years 
ago,  when  sitting  by  ourselves  in  the  Mitre  tavern  *,  in  London,  I 
think  about  witching  time  0'  night  ^ ;  and  then  exulted  in  contem- 
plating our  scheme  fulfilled,  and  a  inoniimentittn  perenne^  of  it  erect- 
ed by  your  superiour  abilities.  I  shall  only  say,  that  your  book 
has  afforded  me  a  high  gratification.     I  shall  afterwards  give  you 

'  'The  King,'  wrote  Horace  Walpole  on  Jan.  21,  1775  {Letters,  V\. 
179), '  sent  for  the  book  in  MS.,  and  then  wondering,  said,  "  I  protest, 
Johnson  seems  to  be  a  Papist  and  a  Jacobite  " — so  he  did  not  know 
why  he  had  been  made  to  give  him  a  pension.' 

^  Boswell's  little  daughter.     Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  15,  1773. 
'  '  Bis  dat 

Qui  cito  dat,  minimi  gratia  tarda  pretii  est.' 
Alciat's  Emblems,  Alciati  Opera.     1558,  p.  821. 

^  It  was  at  the  Turk's  Head  coffee-house  in  the  Strand.  See  ante, 
i.  521. 

^  Hamlet,  act  iii.  sc.  2. 

°  '  Exegi  monumentum  aere  perennius.' 

Horace,  Odes,  iii.  30.  i. 
my 


Aetat.  66.]  Dr.  Mentis.  333 

my  thoughts  on  particular  passages.  In  the  mean  time,  I  hasten  to 
tell  you  of  your  having  mistaken  two  names,  which  you  will  correct 
in  London,  as  I  shall  do  here,  that  the  gentlemen  who  deserve  the 
valuable  compliments  which  you  have  paid  them,  may  enjoy  their 
honours.  In  page  106,  for  Gordon  read  Murchison ;  and  in  page 
357,  for  Maclea7i  read  Madeod\ 

*  tP  tP  ^  ^  ^  ^ 

'  But  I  am  now  to  apply  to  you  for  immediate  aid  in  my  profes- 
sion, which  you  have  never  refused  to  grant  when  I  requested  it. 
I  enclose  you  a  petition  for  Dr.  Memis,  a  physician  at  Aberdeen,  in 
which  Sir  John  Dalrymple  has  exerted  his  talents,  and  which  I  am 
to  answer  as  Counsel  for  the  managers  of  the  Royal  Infirmary  in 
that  city.  Mr.  Jopp,  the  Provost,  who  delivered  to  you  your  free- 
dom ^,  is  one  of  my  clients,  and,  as  a  citizen  of  Aberdeen^  you  will 
support  him. 

'  The  fact  is  shortly  this.  In  a  translation  of  the  charter  of  the 
Infirmary  from  Latin  into  English,  made  under  the  authority  of  the 
managers,  the  same  phrase  in  the  original  is  in  one  place  rendered 
Physician,  but  when  applied  to  Dr.  Memis  is  rendered  Doctor  of 
Medicine.  Dr.  Memis  complained  of  this  before  the  translation  was 
printed,  but  was  not  indulged  with  having  it  altered ;  and  he  has 
brought  an  action  for  damages,  on  account  of  a  supposed  injury,  as 
if  the  designation  given  to  him  was  an  inferiour  one,  tending  to 
make  it  be  supposed  he  is  not  a  Physician,  and,  consequently,  to 
hurt  his  practice.  My  father  has  dismissed  the  action  as  ground- 
less, and  now  he  has  appealed  to  the  whole  Court '.' 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  I  long  to  hear  how  you  like  the  book ;  it  is,  I  think,  much 
liked  here.     But  Macpherson  is  very  furious  ■* ;  can  you  give  me 

'  The  second  edition  was  not  brought  out  till  the  year  after  John- 
son's death.  These  mistakes  remain  uncorrected.  Johnson's  Works, 
ix.  44.  1 50. 

^  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  23. 

^  In  the  Court  of  Session  of  Scotland  an  action  is  first  tried  by  one 
of  the  Judges,  who  is  called  the  Lord  Ordinary;  and  if  either  party  is 
dissatisfied,  he  may  appeal  to  the  whole  Court,  consisting  of  fifteen, 
the  Lord  President  and  fourteen  other  Judges,  who  have  both  in  and 
out  of  Court  the  title  of  Lords,  from  the  name  of  their  estates  ;  as.  Lord 
Auchinleck,  Lord  Monboddo,  &c.     BoswELL.    See  ante,  ii.  230,  note  2. 

*  Johnson  had  thus  written  of  him  (  Works,  ix.  1 1 5) : — '  I  suppose 

any 


334  Reynolds  and  strong  liquor.  [a.d.  1775. 

any  more  intelligence  about  him,  or  his  Fingal  ?  Do  what  you  can 
and  do  it  quickly.     Is  Lord  Hailes  on  our  side  ? 

*  Pray  let  me  know  what  I  owed  you  when  I  left  you,  that  I  may 
send  it  to  you. 

'  I  am  going  to  write  about  the  Americans  \  If  you  have  picked 
up  any  hints  among  your  lawyers,  who  are  great  masters  of  the  law 
of  nations,  or  if  your  own  mind  suggests  any  thing,  let  me  know. 
But  mum,  it  is  a  secret. 

'  I  will  send  your  parcel  of  books  as  soon  as  I  can  ;  but  I  can- 
not do  as  I  wish.  However,  you  find  every  thing  mentioned  in 
the  book  which  you  recommended. 

'  Langton  is  here  ;  we  are  all  that  ever  we  were  ^  He  is  a  wor- 
thy fellow,  without  malice,  though  not  without  resentment. 

'  Poor  Beauclerk  is  so  ill,  that  his  life  is  thought  to  be  in  dan- 
ger ^     Lady  Di  nurses  him  with  very  great  assiduity. 

'  Reynolds  has  taken  too  much  to  strong  liquor ",  and  seems  to 
delight  in  his  new  character. 

my  opinion  of  the  poems  of  Ossian  is  already  discovered.  I  believe 
they  never  existed  in  any  other  form  than  that  which  we  have  seen. 
The  editor,  or  author,  never  could  show  the  original ;  nor  can  it  be 
shown  by  any  other.  To  revenge  reasonable  incredulity  by  refusing 
evidence  is  a  degree  of  insolence  with  which  the  world  is  not  yet 
acquainted ;  and  stubborn  audacity  is  the  last  refuge  of  guilt.'  See 
ante,  ii.  145. 

'    Taxation  no  Tyranny.     See  post,  nndtv  March  21,  1775. 

*  See  ante,  ii.  304. 

^  In  Tickell's  Epistle  from  the  Hon.  Charles  Fox  to  the  Hon.  John 
Townshend  (1779)  are  the  following  lines  (p.  11) : — 

'  Soon  as  to  Brooks's  thence  thy  footsteps  bend. 
What  gratulations  thy  approach  attend ! 

^:  H:  *  H:  *  * 

See  Beauclerk's  cheek  a  tinge  of  red  surprise. 
And  friendship  give  what  cruel  health  denies.' 

*  It  should  be  recollected,  that  this  fanciful  description  of  his  friend 
was  given  by  Johnson  after  he  himself  had  become  a  water-drinker, 
BoswELL.  Johnson, /^j/",  April  18,  1775,  describes  one  of  his  friends 
as  muddy.  On  April  12, 1776,  in  a  discussion  about  wine,  when  Reyn- 
olds said  to  him, '  You  have  sat  by,  quite  sober,  and  felt  an  envy  of 
the  happiness  of  those  who  were  drinking,'  he  replied, '  Perhaps,  con- 
tempt.' On  April  28,  1778,  he  said  to  Reynolds :  '  I  won't  argue  any 
more  with  you.  Sir.  You  are  too  far  gone.'  See  also  ante,  i.  363, 
note  I,  where  he  said  to  him:  'Sir,  I  did  not  count  your  glasses  of 
wine,  why  should  you  number  up  my  cups  of  tea  }' 

'This 


Aetat.  66.]         An  inscription  for  a  picture.  335 

'This  is  all  the  news  that  I  have  ;  but  as  you  love  verses,  I  will 
send  you  a  few  which  I  made  upon  Inchkenneth  ' ;  but  remember 
the  condition,  )'ou  shall  not  show  them,  except  to  Lord  Hailes, 
whom  I  love  better  than  any  man  whom  I  know  so  little.  If  he 
asks  you  to  transcribe  them  for  him,  you  may  do  it,  but  I  think  he 
must  promise  not  to  let  them  be  copied  again,  nor  to  show  them 
as  mine. 

'I  have  at  last  sent  back  Lord  Hailes's  sheets.  I  never  think 
about  returning  them,  because  I  alter  nothing.  You  will  see  that  I 
might  as  well  have  kept  them.  However,  I  am  ashamed  of  my  de- 
lay ;  and  if  I  have  the  honour  of  receiving  any  more,  promise  punct- 
ually to  return  them  by  the  next  post.  Make  my  compliments  to 
dear  Mrs.  Boswell,  and  to  Miss  Veronica. 

'  I  am,  dear  Sir, 

'  Yours  most  faithfully, 

'  Sam.  Johnson  ^' 

'Jan.  21,  1775.' 

'  See  them  in  Jotimal  of  a  Tour  to  the  Hebrides,  3rd  edit.  p.  337 
[Oct.  17].     Boswell. 

'  He  now  sent  me  a  Latin  inscription  for  my  historical  picture  of 
Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  and  afterwards  favoured  me  with  an  English 
translation.    Mr.  Alderman  Boydell,  that  eminent  Patron  of  the  Arts, 
has  subjoined  them  to  the  engraving  from  my  picture. 
'  Maria  Scotornni  Rcgina 
Homzmon  seditiosoriini 
Cotitioneh't's  lassata. 
Minis  territa,  clatnoribus  victa 
Libello,  per  guem 
Regno  cedit, 
Lacritnans  trcpidansque 
Nomcn  apponit.' 

'  Mary  Queen  of  Scots, 

Harassed,  terrified,  and  overpowered 

By  the  insults,  menaces. 

And  clamours 

Of  her  rebellious  subjects, 

Sets  her  hand. 
With  tears  and  confusion. 
To  a  resignation  of  the  kingdom.'         BoswELL. 
Northcotc  {Life  of  Reynolds,  ii.  234)  calls  Boydell '  the  truest  and  great- 
est encouragcr  of  English  art  that  England  ever  saw.' 

'  Mr.  Bo.swell 


336  American  taxation.  [a.d.  1775. 

'  Mr.  Boswell  to  Dr.  Johnson. 

'  Edinburgh,  Jan.  27,  1775. 

*  You  rate  our  lawyers  here  too  high,  when  you  call  them  great 

masters  of  the  law  of  nations. 

******* 

'As  for  myself,  I  am  ashamed  to  say  I  have  read  little  and 
thought  little  on  the  subject  of  America.  I  will  be  much  obliged 
to  you,  if  you  will  direct  me  where  I  shall  find  the  best  information 
of  what  is  to  be  said  on  both  sides.  It  is  a  subject  vast  in  its  pres- 
ent extent  and  future  consequences.  The  imperfect  hints  which 
now  float  in  my  mind,  tend  rather  to  the  formation  of  an  opinion 
that  our  government  has  been  precipitant  and  severe  in  the  reso- 
lutions taken  against  the  Bostonians '.  Well  do  you  know  that  I 
have  no  kindness  for  that  race.  But  nations,  or  bodies  of  men, 
should,  as  well  as  individuals,  have  a  fair  trial,  and  not  be  con- 
demned on  character  alone.  Have  we  not  express  contracts  with 
our  colonies,  which  afford  a  more  certain  foundation  of  judgement, 
than  general  political  speculations  on  the  mutual  rights  of  States 
and  their  provinces  or  colonies  ?  Pray  let  me  know  immediately 
what  to  read,  and  I  shall  diligently  endeavour  to  gather  for  you  any 
thing  that  I  can  find.  Is  Burke's  speech  on  American  taxation 
published  by  himself.^  Is  it  authentick?  I  remember  to  have 
heard  you  say,  that  you  had  never  considered  East-Indian  affairs ; 
though,  surely,  they  are  of  much  importance  to  Great-Britain.  Un- 
der the  recollection  of  this,  I  shelter  myself  from  the  reproach  of 
ignorance  about  the  Americans.  If  you  write  upon  the  subject  I 
shall  certainly  understand  it.  But,  since  you  seem  to  expect  that 
I  should  know  something  of  it,  without  your  instruction,  and  that 
my  own  mind  should  suggest  something,  I  trust  you  will  put  me  in 

the  way. 

******* 

'  What  does  Becket "  mean  by  the  Originals  of  Fingal  and  other 
poems  of  Ossian,  which  he  advertises  to  have  lain  in  his  shop  ?' 

******* 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  You  sent  me  a  case  to  consider,  in  which  I  have  no  facts  but 

'  By  the  Boston  Port-Bill,  passed  in  1774,  Boston  had  been  closed 
as  a  port  for  the  landing  and  shipping  of  goods.     Ann.  Reg.  xvii.  64. 
*  Becket,  a  bookseller  in  the  Strand,  was  the  publisher  of  Ossian. 

what 


Aetat.  66.]        Lies  in  defence  of  Macpherson.  337 

what  are  against  us.  nor  any  principles  on  which  to  reason.  It  is 
vain  to  try  to  write  thus  without  materials.  The  fact  seems  to  be 
against  you ;  at  least  I  cannot  know  nor  say  any  thing  to  the  con- 
trary. I  am  glad  that  you  like  the  book  so  well.  I  hear  no  more 
of  IMacpherson.  I  shall  long  to  know  what  Lord  Hailes  says  of  it. 
Lend  it  him  privately.  I  shall  send  the  parcel  as  soon  as  I  can. 
Make  my  compliments  to  Mrs.  Boswell. 

'  I  am,  Sir,  &c., 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'Jan.  28,  1775.' 

'  Mr.  Boswell  to  Dr.  Johnson. 

'  Edinburgh,  Feb.  2,  1775. 

******* 

'  As  to  Macpherson,  I  am  anxious  to  have  from  yourself  a  full 
and  pointed  account  of  what  has  passed  between  you  and  him.  It 
is  confidently  told  here,  that  before  your  book  came  out  he  sent  to 
you,  to  let  you  know  that  he  understood  you  meant  to  deny  the 
authenticity  of  Ossian's  poems ;  that  the  originals  were  in  his  pos- 
session ;  that  you  might  have  inspection  of  them,  and  might  take 
the  evidence  of  people  skilled  in  the  Erse  language ;  and  that  he 
hoped,  after  this  fair  offer,  you  would  not  be  so  uncandid  as  to 
assert  that  he  had  refused  reasonable  proof.  That  you  paid  no 
regard  to  his  message,  but  published  your  strong  attack  upon  him ; 
and  then  he  wrote  a  letter  to. you,  in  such  terms  as  he  thought 
suited  to  one  who  had  not  acted  as  a  man  of  veracity.  You  may 
believe  it  gives  me  pain  to  hear  your  conduct  represented  as  unfa- 
vourable, while  I  can  only  deny  what  is  said,  on  the  ground  that 
your  character  refutes  it,  without  having  any  information  to  oppose. 
Let  me,  I  beg  it  of  you,  be  furnished  with  a  sufficient  answer  to  any 
calumny  upon  this  occasion. 

'  Lord  Hailes  writes  to  me,  (for  we  correspond  more  than  we  talk 
together,)  "  As  to  Fingal,  I  see  a  controversy  ai'ising,  and  purpose  to 
keep  out  of  its  way.  There  is  no  doubt  that  I  might  mention  some 
circumstances;  but  I  do  not  choose  to  commit  them  to  paper'." 
What  his  opinion  is,  I  do  not  know.  He  says,  "  I  am  singularly 
obliged  to  Dr.  Johnson  for  his  accurate  and  useful  criticisms.    Had 

'  His  Lordship,  notwithstanding  his  resolution,  did  commit  his  sen- 
timents to  paper,  and  in  one  of  his  notes  affixed  to  his  Collccti07i  of 
Old  Scottish  Poetry,  he  says,  that  '  to  doubt  the  authenticity  of  those 
poems  is  a  refinement  in  Scepticism  indeed.'     J.  Blakewav. 

n. — 22  he 


33^  Dr.  Lawrence.  [a.d.  1775. 


he  given  some  strictures  on  the  general  plan  of  the  work,  it  would 
have  added  much  to  his  favours."  He  is  charmed  with  your  verses 
on  Inchkenneth,  says  they  are  very  elegant,  but  bids  me  tell  you  he 
doubts  whether 

"  Lcgiti7)ias  faciunt  pcctora  pura  preces  '  " 

be  according  to  the  rubrick :  but  that  is  your  concern ;  for,  you 
know,  he  is  a  Presbyterian.' 


'To  Dr,  Lawrence 


'  Feb.  7,  1775. 


'Sir, 

'  One  of  the  Scotch  physicians  is  now  prosecuting  a  corpora- 
tion that  in  some  publick  instrument  have  stiled  him  Doctor  of 
Medicme  instead  of  Physician.  Boswell  desires,  being  advocate  for 
the  corporation,  to  know  whether  Doctor  of  Alcdicine  is  not  a  legiti- 
mate title,  and  whether  it  may  be  considered  as  a  disadvantageous 
distinction.     I  am  to  write  to-night ;  be  pleased  to  tell  me. 

'  I  am,  Sir,  your  most,  &c., 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
'My  Dear  Boswell, 

'  I  am  surprised  that,  knowing  as  you  do  the  disposition  of 

'  Mr.  Croker  writes  (Croker's  Boszvell,  p.  378,  note)  : — '  The  original 
draft  of  these  verses  in  Johnson's  autograph  is  now  before  me.  He 
had  first  written  : — 

"  Sunt  pro  legitimis  pectora  pura  sacris ;" 
he  then  wrote — 

"  Legitimas  faciunt  pura  labella  preces ;" 
which  more  nearly  approaches  Mr.  Boswell's  version,  and  alludes, 
happily  I  think,  to  the  prayers  having  been  read  by  the  young  lady. 
.  .  .  The  line  as  it  stands  in  the  Works  [Sint  pro  legitimis  pura  la- 
bella sacris,  i.  167],  is  substituted  in  Mr.  Langton's  hand.  ...  As  I  have 
reason  to  believe  that  Mr.  Langton  assisted  in  editing  these  Latin 
poeniata,  I  conclude  that  these  alterations  were  his  own.' 

■  The  learned  and  worthy  Dr.  Lawrence,  whom  Dr.  Johnson  re- 
spected and  loved  as  his  physician  and  friend.  Boswell.  '  Dr.  Law- 
rence was  descended,  as  Sir  Egerton  Br>'dges  informs  me,  from  Mil- 
ton's friend  [' Lawrence,  of  virtuous  father  virtuous  son.'  Milton's 
Sonnets,  xx.].  One  of  his  sons  was  Sir  Soulden  Lawrence,  one  of  the 
Judges  of  the  King's  Bench.'  Croker's  Boswell,  p.  734.  See  post, 
March  19, 1782. 

your 


Aetat.  6G.]      Conspiracy  in  national  falsehood.  339 

your  countrymen  to  tell  lies  in  favour  of  each  other  \  you  can  be  at 
all  affected  by  any  reports  that  circulate  among  them.  Macpherson 
never  in  his  life  offered  me  a  sight  of  any  original  or  of  any  evi- 
dence of  any  kind ;  but  thought  only  of  intimidating  me  by  noise 
and  threats,  till  my  last  answer, — that  I  would  not  be  deterred  from 
detecting  what  I  thought  a  cheat,  by  the  menaces  of  a  ruffian — put 
an  end  to  our  correspondence. 

'  The  state  of  the  question  is  this.  He,  and  Dr.  Blair,  whom  I 
consider  as  deceived,  say,  that  he  copied  the  poem  from  old  manu- 
scripts. His  copies,  if  he  had  them,  and  I  believe  him  to  have 
none,  are  nothing.  Where  are  the  manuscripts  ?  They  can  be 
shown  if  they  exist,  but  they  were  never  shown.  De  non  existaitibus 
et  non  apparentibus,  says  our  law,  eadem  est  ratio.  No  man  has  a 
claim  to  credit  upon  his  own  word,  when  better  evidence,  if  he  had 
it,  may  be  easily  produced.  But,  so  far  as  we  can  find,  the  Erse 
language  was  never  written  till  very  lately  for  the  purposes  of  re- 
ligion. A  nation  that  cannot  write,  or  a  language  that  was  never 
written,  has  no  manuscripts. 

'  But  whatever  he  has  he  never  offered  to  show.  If  old  manu- 
scripts should  now  be  mentioned,  I  should,  unless  there  were  more 
evidence  than  can  be  easily  had,  suppose  them  another  proof  of 
Scotch  conspiracy  in  national  falsehood. 

'  Do  not  censure  the  expression  ;  you  know  it  to  be  true. 

'  Dr.  Memis's  question  is  so  narrow  as  to  allow  no  speculation ; 
and  I  have  no  facts  before  me  but  those  which  his  advocate  has 
produced  against  you. 

'  I  consulted  this  morning  the  President  of  the  London  College 
of  Physicians ',  who  says,  that  with  us.  Doctor  of  Physick  (we  do 
not  say  Doctor  of  Medicine)  is  the  highest  title  that  a  practicer  of 
physick  can  have ;  that  Doctor  implies  not  only  Physician,  but 
teacher  of  physick;  that  every  Doctor  is  legally  a  Physician;  but 
no  man,  not  a  Doctor,  czxs.  practice  physick  but  hy  licence  particularly 
granted.  The  Doctorate  is  a  licence  of  itself.  It  seems  to  us  a 
very  slender  cause  of  prosecution. 


'  My  friend  has,  in  this  letter,  relied  upon  my  testimony,  with  a  con- 
fidence, of  which  the  ground  has  escaped  my  recollection.  BoswKLL. 
Lord  Shelburnc  said  :  '  Like  the  generality  of  Scotch,  Lord  Mansfield 
had  no  regard  to  truth  whatever.'     Fitzmaurice's  Shelburnc,  i.  89. 

'  Dr.  Lawrence.  See  Johnson's  letter  tD  Warren  Hastings  of  Dec. 
20,  1 774.     See  post,  beginning  of  1 78 1 . 

"  1  am 


340  Johnson  s  letter  to  Macpherson.       [a.d.  1775. 

'  I  am  now  engaged,  but  in  a  little  time  I  hope  to  do  all  you 
would  have.     My  compliments  to  Madam  and  Veronica. 
'  I  am,  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  February  7,  1775.' 

What  words  were  used  by  Mr.  Macpherson  in  his  letter 
to  the  venerable  Sage,  I  have  never  heard  ;  but  they  are  gen- 
erally said  to  have  been  of  a  nature  very  different  from  the 
language  of  literary  contest.  Dr,  Johnson's  answer  appeared 
in  the  newspapers  of  the  day,  and  has  since  been  frequently 
re-published  ;  but  not  with  perfect  accuracy.  I  give  it  as 
dictated  to  me  by  himself,  written  down  in  his  presence,  and 
authenticated  by  a  note  in  his  own  hand-writing,  '  TJiis,  I 
think,  is  a  true  copy\' 

'Mr.  James  Macpherson, 

'  I  received  your  foolish  and  impudent  letter.  Any  violence 
offered  me  I  shall  do  my  best  to  repel ;  and  what  I  cannot  do  for 
myself,  the  law  shall  do  for  me.  I  hope  I  shall  never  be  deterred 
from  detecting  what  I  think  a  cheat,  by  the  menaces  of  a  ruffian. 

'  What  would  you  have  me  retract .''  I  thought  your  book  an 
imposture ;  I  think  it  an  imposture  still.  For  this  opinion  I  have 
given  my  reasons  to  the  publick,  which  I  here  dare  you  to  refute. 
Your  rage  I  defy.     Your  abilities,  since  your  Homer  ^,  are  not  so 

^  I  have  deposited  it  in  the  British  Museum.  Boswell.  Mr.  P. 
Cunningham  says  :—'  Of  all  the  MSS.  which  Boswell  says  he  had  de- 
posited in  the  British  Museum,  only  the  copy  of  the  letter  to  Lord 
Chesterfield  has  been  found,  and  that  was  not  deposited  by  him,  but 
after  his  death, "  pursuant  to  the  intentions  of  the  late  James  Bos- 
well, Esq."  '  Croker's  Boswell,  p.  430.  The  original  letter  to  Mac- 
pherson was  sold  in  Mr.  Pocock's  collection  in  1875.  It  fetched  _;^5o, 
almost  five  times  as  much  as  Johnson  was  paid  for  his  London.  It 
differs  from  the  copy,  if  we  can  trust  the  auctioneer's  catalogue,  where 
the  following  passage  is  quoted  : — '  Mr.  James  Macpherson,  I  received 
your  foolish  and  impudent  note.  Whatever  insult  is  Oilered  me,  I 
will  do  my  best  to  repel,  and  what  I  cannot  do  for  myself  the  law 
shall  do  for  me.  I  will  not  desist  from  detecting  what  I  think  a 
cheat  from  any  fear  of  the  menaces  of  a  Ruffian.' 

'  In  the  Gent.  Mag.  for  1773,  p.  192,  is  announced  :  '  The  Iliad  of 

formidable : 


Aetat.  C)6.]  JoJiuson  s  fearlessness.  341 

formidable ;  and  what  I  hear  of  your  morals,  inclines  me  to  pay 
regard  not  to  what  you  shall  say,  but  to  what  you  shall  prove. 
You  may  print  this  if  you  will, 

'  Sam.  Johnson'.' 

Mr.  IMacpherson  little  knew  the  character  of  Dr.  Johnson, 
if  he  supposed  that  he  could  be  easily  intimidated  ;  for  no 
man  was  ever  more  remarkable  for  personal  courage.  He 
had,  indeed,  an  aweful  dread  of  death,  or  rather,  '  of  some- 
thing after  death'";'  and  what  rational  man,  who  seriously 
thinks  of  quitting  all  that  he  has  ever  known,  and  going  into 
a  new  and  unknown  state  of  being,  can  be  without  that 
dread  ?  But  his  fear  was  from  reflection  ;  his  courage  nat- 
ural. His  fear,  in  that  one  instance,  was  the  result  of  phil- 
osophical and  religious  consideration.  He  feared  death, 
but  he  feared  nothing  else,  not  even  what  might  occasion 
death".  Many  instances  of  his  resolution  may  be  mentioned. 
One  day,  at  Mr.  Beauclerk's  house  in  the  country,  when  two 
large  dogs  were  fighting,  he  went  up  to  them,  and  beat  them 

Homer.  Translated  by  James  Macpherson,  Esq.,  2  vols.  4to.  £2  2s. 
Becket.'  Hume  writes  : — '  Finding  the  style  of  his  Ossian  admired  by 
some,  he  attempts  a  translation  of  Homer  in  the  very  same  style.  He 
begins  and  linishes  in  six  weeks  a  work  that  was  for  ever  to  eclipse 
the  translation  of  Pope,  whom  he  does  not  even  deign  to  mention  in 
his  preface ;  but  this  joke  was  still  more  unsuccessful  [than  his  His- 
tory of  Britai}i\:  J.H.  Burton's  Hume,  i.  478.  Hume  says  of  him, 
that  he  had  '  scarce  ever  known  a  man  more  perverse  and  unamiable.' 
lb.  p.  470.  \ 

'  '  "Within  a  few  feet  of  Johnson  lies  (by  one  of  those  singular  coin- 
cidences in  which  the  Abbey  abounds)  his  deadly  enemy,  James  Mac- 
pherson.'    Stanley's  Westminster  Abbey,  p.  298. 

^  Hamlet,  act  iii.  sc.  i. 

^  '  Fear  was  indeed  a  sensation  to  which  Dr.  Johnson  was  an  utter 
stranger,  excepting  when  some  sudden  apprehensions  seized  him  that 
he  was  going  to  die.'  Piozzi's  Anec.  p.  277.  In  this  respect  his  char- 
acter might  be  likened  to  that  of  Fearing,  in  Pilgrim's  Progress  (Part 
ii),  as  described  by  Great-Heart: — 'When  he  came  to  the  Hill  Diffi- 
culty, he  made  no  stick  at  that,  nor  did  he  much  fear  the  Lions ;  for 
you  must  know  that  his  troubles  were  not  about  such  things  as  these  ; 
his  fear  was  about  his  acceptance  at  last.' 

till 


342  Johnsoiis  fearlessness.  [a. d.  1775. 

till  they  separated';  and  at  another  time,  when  told  of  the 
danger  there  was  that  a  gun  might  burst  if  charged  with 
many  balls,  he  put  in  six  or  seven,  and  fired  it  off  against  a 
wall.  Mr.  Langton  told  me,  that  when  they  were  swimming 
together  near  Oxford,  he  cautioned  Dr.  Johnson  against  a 
pool,  which  was  reckoned  particularly  dangerous ;  upon 
which  Johnson  directly  swam  into  it.  He  told  me  himself 
that  one  night  he  was  attacked  in  the  street  by  four  men,  to 
whom  he  would  not  yield,  but  kept  them  all  at  bay,  till  the 
watch  came  up,  and  carried  both  him  and  them  to  the  round- 
house\  In  the  play-house  at  Lichfield,  as  Mr.  Garrick  in- 
formed me,  Johnson  having  for  a  moment  quitted  a  chair 
which  was  placed  for  him  between  the  side-scenes,  a  gentle- 
man took  possession  of  it,  and  when  Johnson  on  his  return 
civilly  demanded  his  seat,  rudely  refused  to  give  it  up  ;  upon 
which  Johnson  laid  hold  of  it,  and  tossed  him  and  the  chair 
into  the  pit.  Foote,  who  so  successfully  revived  the  old 
comedy,  by  exhibiting  living  characters,  had  resolved  to 
imitate  Johnson  on  the  stage,  expecting  great  profits  from 
his  ridicule  of  so  celebrated  a  man.  Johnson  being  informed 
of  his  intention,  and  being  at  dinner  at  Mr.  Thomas  Davies's 
the  bookseller,  from  whom  I  had  the  story,  he  asked  Mr. 
Davies  '  what  was  the  common  price  of  an  oak  stick ;'  and 
being  answered  six-pence, '  Why  then.  Sir,  (said  he,)  give  me 
leave  to  send  your  servant  to  purchase  me  a  shilling  one. 
I'll  have  a  double  quantity ;  for  I  am  told  Foote  means  to 
take  me  off,  as  he  calls  it,  and  I  am  determined  the  fellow 
shall  not  do  it  with  impunity;'  Davies  took  care  to  acquaint 
Foote  of  this,  which  effectually  checked  the  wantonness  of 
the  mimick^  Mr.  Macpherson's  menaces  made  Johnson 
provide  himself  with  the  same  implement  of  defence^;  and 

'  See  Boswell's  Hebrzdcs,  Oct.  i8,  1773. 

*  See  ante,  i.  289,  where  Garrick  humorously  foretold  the  Round- 
house for  Johnson. 

^  See  afife,  ii.  109. 

*  '  It  was,'  writes  Hawkins  {Life,  p.  491), '  an  oak-plant  of  a  tremen- 
dous size ;  a  plant,  I  say,  and  not  a  shoot  or  branch,  for  it  had  had  a 
root  which,  being  trimmed  to  the  size  of  a  large  orange,  became  the 

had 


Aetat.ec]         Johnsons  Journey  published.  343 

had  he  been  attacked,  I  have  no  doubt  that,  old  as  he  was, 
he  would  have  made  his  corporal  prowess  be  felt  as  much  as 
his  intellectual. 

His  Journey  to  the  Western  Islands  of  Scotland^  ^'  is  a  most 
valuable  performance.  It  abounds  in  extensive  philosophi- 
cal views  of  society,  and  in  ingenious  sentiment  and  lively 
description.  A  considerable  part  of  it,  indeed,  consists  of 
speculations,  which  many  years  before  he  saw  the  wild  re- 
gions which  we  visited  together,  probably  had  employed  his 
attention,  though  the  actual  sight  of  those  scenes  undoubt- 
edly quickened  and  augmented  them.  Mr.  Orme,  the  very 
able  historian^,  agreed  with  me  in  this  opinion,  which  he 
thus  strongly  expressed  : — '  There  are  in  that  book  thoughts, 
which,  by  long  revolution  in  the  great  mind  of  Johnson, 
have  been  formed  and  polished  like  pebbles  rolled  in  the 
ocean  !' 

That  he  was  to  some  degree  of  excess  a  true-born  English- 
man'^, so  as  to  have  entertained  an  undue  prejudice  against 
both  the  country  and  the  people  of  Scotland,  must  be  al- 
lowed \     But  it  was  a  prejudice  of  the  head,  and  not  of  the 

head  of  it.  Its  height  was  upwards  of  six  feet,  and  from  about  an  inch 
in  diameter  at  the  lower  end,  increased  to  near  three ;  this  he  kept  in 
his  bedchamber,  so  near  the  chair  in  which  he  constantly  sat  as  to  be 
within  reach.'  Macpherson,  like  Johnson,  was  a  big  man.  Dr.  A.  Car- 
lyle  says  {Auto.  p.  398)  : — '  He  was  good-looking,  of  a  large  size,  with 
very  thick  legs,  to  hide  which  he  generally  wore  boots,  though  not 
then  the  fashion.     He  appeared  to  me  proud  and  resei"ved.' 

*  Boswell  wrote  to  Temple  on  April  4: — '  Mr.  Johnson  has  allowed 
me  to  write  out  a  supplement  to  \{\'~,  Journey.'  Letters  of  Bosivell, 
p.  186.  On  May  10  he  wrote  : — '  I  have  not  written  out  another  line  of 
my  remarks  on  the  Hebrides.  I  found  it  impossible  to  do  it  in  Lon- 
don. Besides,  Dr.  Johnson  does  not  seem  very  desirous  that  I  should 
publish  any  supplement.  BctzueeJi  ourselves,  lie  is  not  apt  to  encourage 
one  to  share  reputation  wit/i  himself.'     lb.  p.  192. 

'  Colonel  Newcome,  when  a  lad, '  was  for  ever  talking  of  India,  and 
the  famous  deeds  of  Clive  and  Lawrence.  His  favourite  book  was  a 
history  of  India — the  history  of  Orme.'  Thackeray's  Newcoines,  ch. 
Ixxvi.     See /^m/,  April  15,  1778. 

'  Richard  II,  act  i.  sc.  3.     See  ante,  i.  1 50. 

*  A  passage  in  the  North  Briton,  No.  34,  shews  how  wide-spread  this 

heart. 


344  English  aiid  Scotch  antipathies.      [a.d.  it75. 

heart.  He  had  no  ill-will  to  the  Scotch  ;  for,  if  he  had  been 
conscious  of  that,  he  would  never  have  thrown  himself  into 
the  bosom  of  their  country,  and  trusted  to  the  protection  of 

prejudice  was.  The  writer  gives  his  '  real,  fair,  and  substantial  objec- 
tions to  the  administration  of  this  Scot  [Lord  Bute].  The  first  is,  that 
he  is  a  Scot.  I  am  certain  that  reason  could  never  believe  that  a  Scot 
was  fit  to  have  the  management  of  English  affairs.  A  Scot  hath  no 
more  right  to  preferment  in  Eftgland  than  a  Hanoverian  or  a  Hotten- 
tot.' In  Humphry  Clinker  (Letter  of  July  13)  we  read  : — '  From  Don- 
caster  northwards  all  the  windows  of  all  the  inns  are  scrawled  with 
doggrel  rhymes  in  abuse  of  the  Scotch  nation.'  Horace  Walpole, 
writing  of  the  contest  between  the  House  of  Commons  and  the  city 
in  1 77 1,  says  of  the  Scotch  courtiers: — 'The  Scotch  wanted  to  come 
to  blows,  and  were  at  least  not  sorry  to  see  the  House  of  Commons  so 
contemptible.'  Alemoirs  of  the  Reigti  of  George  III,  iv.  301.  '  What  a 
nation  is  Scotland,'  he  wrote  at  the  end  of  the  Gordon  Riots,  'in  every 
reign  engendering  traitors  to  the  State,  and  false  and  pernicious  to  the 
kings  that  favour  it  the  most.'  Letters,  vii.  400.  S^o.  post,  March  21, 
1783.  Lord  Shelburne,  a  man  of  a  liberal  mind,  wrote  :— '  I  can  scarce 
conceive  a  Scotchman  capable  of  liberality,  and  capable  of  impartial- 
ity.' After  calling  them  '  a  sad  set  of  innate  cold-hearted,  impudent 
rogues,'  he  continues : — '  It's  a  melancholy  thing  that  there  is  no  finding 
any  other  people  that  will  take  pains,  or  be  amenable  even  to  the  best 
purposes.'  Fitzmaurice's  Shelburne,  iii.  441.  Hume  wrote  to  his  coun- 
tryman, Gilbert  Elliot,  in  1764: — 'I  do  not  believe  there  is  one  Eng- 
lishman in  fifty,  who,  if  he  heard  I  had  broke  (sic)  my  neck  to-night, 
would  be  sorry.  Some,  because  I  am  not  a  Whig;  some,  because  I 
am  not  a  Christian  ;  and  all,  because  I  am  a  Scotsman.  Can  you  seri- 
ously talk  of  my  continuing  an  Englishman  ?  Am  I,  or  are  you,  an 
Englishman  }'  Elliot  replies  : — '  Notwithstanding  all  you  say,  we  are 
both  Englishmen ;  that  is,  true  British  subjects,  entitled  to  every 
emolument  and  advantage  that  our  happy  constitution  can  bestow.' 
Burton's  Hume,  ii.  238,  240.  Hume,  in  his  prejudice  against  England, 
went  far  beyond  Johnson  in  his  prejudice  against  Scotland.  In  1769 
he  wrote : — '  I  am  delighted  to  see  the  daily  and  hourly  progress  of 
madness  and  folly  and  wickedness  in  England.  The  consummation  of 
these  qualities  are  the  true  ingredients  for  making  a  fine  narrative  in 
history,  especially  if  followed  by  some  signal  and  ruinous  convulsion 
— as  I  hope  will  soon  be  the  case  with  that  pernicious  people.'  lb. 
p.  431.  In  1770  he  wrote  : — '  Our  government  has  become  a  chimera, 
and  is  too  perfect,  in  point  of  liberty,  for  so  rude  a  beast  as  an  Eng- 
lishman ;  who  is  a  man,  a  bad  animal  too,  corrupted  by  above  a  cen- 
tury of  licentiousness.'     lb.  p.  434. 

its 


Aetat.  66.]  The  nakedness  of  Scotland.  345 

its  remote  inhabitants  with  a  fearless  confidence.  His  re- 
mark upon  the  nakedness  of  the  country,  from  its  being 
denuded  of  trees ',  was  made  after  having  travelled  two  hun- 
dred miles  along  the  eastern  coast,  where  certainly  trees  are 
not  to  be  found  near  the  road ;  and  he  said  it  was  *  a  map 
of  the  road"'  which  he  gave.  His  disbelief  of  the  authen- 
ticity of  the  poems  ascribed  to  Ossian,  a  Highland  bard,  was 
confirmed  in  the  course  of  his  journey,  by  a  very  strict 
examination  of  the  evidence  offered  for  it ;  and  although 
their  authenticity  was  made  too  much  a  national  point  by 
the  Scotch,  there  were  many  respectable  persons  in  that 
country,  who  did  not  concur  in  this ;  so  that  his  judgement 
upon  the  question  ought  not  to  be  decried,  even  by  those 
who  differ  from  him.  As  to  myself,  I  can  only  say,  upon  a 
subject  now  become  very  uninteresting,  that  when  the  frag- 
ments of  Highland  poetry  first  came  out,  I  was  much  pleased 
with  their  wild  peculiarity,  and  was  one  of  those  who  sub- 
scribed to  enable  their  editor,  Mr.  Macpherson,  then  a  young 
man,  to  make  a  search  in  the  Highlands  and  Hebrides  for  a 
long  poem  in  the  Erse  language,  which  was  reported  to  be 
preserved  somewhere  in  those  regions.  But  when  there 
came  forth  an  Epick  Poem  in  six  books,  with  all  the  com- 
mon circumstances  of  former  compositions  of  that  nature ; 
and  when,  upon  an  attentive  examination  of  it,  there  was 
found  a  perpetual  recurrence  of  the  same  images  which 
appear  in  the  fragments ;  and  when  no  ancient  manuscript, 
to  authenticate  the  work,  was  deposited  in  any  publick 
library,  though  that  was  insisted  on  as  a  reasonable  proof, 
%vho  could  forbear  to  doubt  ^? 

'  '  The  love  of  plantin^c,'  wrote  Sir  Walter  Scott,  '  which  has  become 
almost  a  passion,  is  much  to  be  ascribed  to  Johnson's  sarcasms.'  Cro- 
-  ker  Corrcs.  ii.  34.  Lord  Jeffrey  wrote  from  Watford  in  1833  : — '  What 
a  country  this  old  Enj^land  is.  In  a  circle  of  twenty  miles  from  this 
spot  (leaving  out  London  and  its  suburbs),  there  is  more  old  timber 
. . .  than  in  all  Scotland.'     Cockburn's y.?^r^,  i.  34S.     See  post,  March 

21.  1775- 

^  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  20. 

'  Even  David  Hume  subscribed  to  the  fund.     He  wrote  in  1760: — 

Johnson's 


546  Believers  in  Ossian.  [a.d.  1775. 


Johnson's  grateful  acknowledgements  of  kindnesses  re- 
ceived in  the  course  of  this  tour,  completely  refute  the  bru- 
tal reflections  which  have  been  thrown  out  against  him,  as  if 
he  had  made  an  ungrateful  return  ;  and  his  delicacy  in  spar- 
ing in  his  book  those  who  we  find  from  his  letters  to  Mrs. 
Thralc  were  just  objects  of  censure',  is  much  to  be  admired. 
His  candour  and  amiable  disposition  is  conspicuous  from  his 

'  Certain  it  is  that  these  poems  are  in  every  body's  mouth  in  the  High- 
lands, have  been  handed  down  from  father  to  son,  and  are  of  an  age 
beyond  all  memory  and  tradition.  Adam  Smith  told  me  that  the 
Piper  of  the  Argyleshire  militia  repeated  to  him  all  those  which  Mr. 
Macpherson  had  translated.  We  have  set  about  a  subscription  of  a 
guinea  or  two  guineas  apiece,  in  order  to  enable  Mr.  Macpherson  to 
undertake  a  mission  into  the  Highlands  to  recover  this  poem,  and 
other  fragments  of  antiquity.'  Mason's  Gray,  ii.  170.  Hume  changed 
his  opinion.  '  On  going  to  London,'  writes  Dr.  A.  Carlyle  {Auto. 
p.  276), '  he  went  over  to  the  other  side,  and  loudly  affirmed  the  poems 
to  be  inventions  of  Macpherson.  I  happened  to  say  one  day,  when 
he  was  declaiming  against  Macpherson,  that  I  had  met  with  nobody 
of  his  opinion  but  William  Caddel  of  Cockenzie,  and  President  Dun- 
das,  which  he  took  ill,  and  was  some  time  of  forgetting.'  Gibbon,  in 
the  Decline  and  Fall  (vol.  i.  ch.  vi.),  quoted  Ossian,  but  added  : — '  Some- 
thing of  a  doubtful  mist  still  hangs  over  these  Highland  traditions ;  nor 
can  it  be  entirely  dispelled  by  the  most  ingenious  researches  of  mod- 
ern criticism.'  On  this  Hume  wrote  to  him  on  March  18,  1776: — 'I 
see  you  entertain  a  great  doubt  with  regard  to  the  authenticity  of  the 
poems  of  Ossian. . . .  Where  a  supposition  is  so  contrary  to  common 
sense,  any  positive  evidence  of  it  ought  never  to  be  regarded.  Men 
run  with  great  avidity  to  give  their  evidence  in  favour  of  what  flat- 
ters their  passions  and  their  national  prejudices.  You  are  therefore 
over  and  above  indulgent  to  us  in  speaking  of  the  matter  with  hesi- 
tation.' Gibbon's  Misc.  Works,  i.  225.  So  early  as  1763  Hume  had 
asked  Dr.  Blair  for  '  proof  that  these  poems  were  not  forged  within 
these  five  years  by  James  Macpherson.  These  proofs  vmst  7wt  be  argie- 
vie7its,  but  testimonies.'  J.  H.  Burton's  Hiiinc,  i.  466.  Smollett,  it  should 
seem,  believed  in  Ossian  to  the  end.  In  Humphry  Clinker,  in  the  let-, 
ter  dated  Sept.  3,  he  makes  one  of  his  characters  write  : — '  The  poems 
of  Ossian  are  in  every  mouth.  A  famous  antiquarian  of  this  country, 
the  laird  of  Macfarlane,  at  whose  house  we  dined,  can  repeat  them  all 
in  the  original  Gaelic'     See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Nov.  10. 

'  I  find  in  his  letters  only  Sir  A.  Macdonald  {ante,  ii.  181)  of  whom 
this  can  be  said. 

conduct, 


Aetat. 66.]    Mr.  Dempster  on  Johnsons  Journey.       347 

conduct,  when  informed  by  Mr.  Macleod,  of  Rasay,  that  he 
had  committed  a  mistake,  which  gave  that  gentleman  some 
uneasiness.  He  wrote  him  a  courteous  and  kind  letter,  and 
inserted  in  the  news-papers  an  advertisement,  correcting  the 
mistake '. 

The  observations  of  my  friend  Mr.  Dempster  in  a  letter^ 
written  to  me,  soon  after  he  had  read  Dr.  Johnson's  book, 
are  so  just  and  liberal,  that  they  cannot  be  too  often  re- 
peated : 

-7^  ^  -tP  Tf  ^  -tP  -Jf 

'There  is  nothing  in  the  book,  from  beginning  to  end,  that  a 
Scotchman  need  to  take  amiss.  What  he  says  of  the  country  is 
true ;  and  his  observations  on  the  people  are  what  must  naturally 
occur  to  a  sensible,  observing,  and  reflecting  inhabitant  of  a  con- 
venient metropolis,  Avhere  a  man  on  thirty  pounds  a  year  may  be 
better  accommodated  with  all  the  little  wants  of  life,  than  Col  or 
Sir  Allan. 

'I  am  charmed  with  his  researches  concerning  the  Erse  lan- 
guage, and  the  antiquity  of  their  manuscripts.  I  am  quite  con- 
vinced ;  and  I  shall  rank  Ossian  and  his  Fingals  and  Oscars 
amongst  the  nursery  tales,  not  the  true  history  of  our  country,  in 
all  time  to  come. 

'  Upon  the  whole,  the  book  cannot  displease,  for  it  has  no  pre- 
tensions. The  authour  neither  says  he  is  a  geographer,  nor  an 
antiquarian,  nor  very  learned  in  the  history  of  Scotland,  nor  a  nat- 
uralist, nor  a  fossilist  ^  The  manners  of  the  people,  and  the  face 
of  the  country,  are  all  he  attempts  to  describe,  or  seems  to  have 
thought  of.  Much  were  it  to  be  wished,  that  they  who  have  trav- 
elled into  more  remote,  and  of  course  more  curious  regions,  had 
all  possessed  his  good  sense.  Of  the  state  of  learning,  his  obser- 
vations on  Glasgow  University  show  he  has  formed  a  very  sound 
judgement.  He  understands  our  climate  too  -,  and  he  has  accu- 
rately observed  the  changes,  however  slow  and  imperceptible  to 
us,  which  Scotland  has  undergone,  in  consequence  of  the  blessings 

of  liberty  and  internal  peace.' 

******* 

'  Sqc  Journal  0/  a  Tour  to  the  Hebrides,  3rd  ed.  p.  520  [p.  431].    Bos- 

WELL. 

'  For  the  letter,  see  the  end  of  Boswell's  Hebrides. 
'  Fossilist  is  not  in  Jfjhiison's  Dietionary. 

Mr.  Knox. 


348  Mr.  Knox  on  Johnsons  Journey,     [a.d.  1775. 

Mr.  Knox,  another  native  of  Scotland,  who  has  since  made 
the  same  tour,  and  published  an  account  of  it,  is  equally 
liberal. 

'  I  have  read,  (says  he,)  his  book  again  and  again,  travelled  with 
him  from  Berwick  to  Glenelg,  through  countries  with  which  I  am 
well  acquainted  ;  sailed  with  him  from  Glenelg  to  Rasay,  Sky, 
Rum,  Col,  Mull,  and  Icolmkill,  but  have  not  been  able  to  correct 
him  in  any  matter  of  consequence.  I  have  often  admired  the 
accuracy,  the  precision,  and  the  justness  of  what  he  advances, 
respecting  both  the  country  and  the  people. 

'The  Doctor  has  every  where  delivered  his  sentiments  with 
freedom,  and  in  many  instances  with  a  seeming  regard  for  the 
benefit  of  the  inhabitants  and  the  ornament  of  the  country.  His 
remarks  on  the  want  of  trees  and  hedges  for  shade,  as  well  as  for 
shelter  to  the  cattle,  are  well  founded,  and  merit  the  thanks,  not 
the  illiberal  censure  of  the  natives.  He  also  felt  for  the  distresses 
of  the  Highlanders,  and  explodes  with  great  propriety  the  bad 
management  of  the  grounds,  and  the  neglect  of  timber  in  the 
Hebrides.' 

Having  quoted  Johnson's  just  compliments  on  the  Rasay 
family ',  he  says, 

'On  the  other  hand,  I  found  this  family  equally  lavish  in  their 
encomiums  upon  the  Doctor's  conversation,  and  his  subsequent 
civilities  to  a  young  gentleman  of  that  country,  who,  upon  waiting 
upon  him  at  London,  was  well  received,  and  experienced  all  the 
attention  and  regard  that  a  warm  friend  could  bestow.  Mr.  Mac- 
leod  having  also  been  in  London,  waited  upon  the  Doctor,  who 
provided  a  magnificent  and  expensive  entertainment  in  honour  of 
his  old  Hebridean  acquaintance.' 

And  talking  of  the  military  road  by  Fort  Augustus,  he 
says, 

'  By  this  road,  though  one  of  the  most  rugged  in  Great  Britain, 
the  celebrated  Dr.  Johnson  passed  from  Inverness  to  the  Hebride 

'  '  Rasay  has  little  that  can  detain  a  traveller,  except  the  laird  and 
his  family;  but  their  power  wants  no  auxiliaries.  Such  a  seat  of  hos- 
pitality amidst  the  winds  and  waters  fills  the  imagination  with  a 
delightful  contrariety  of  images.'     Works,  ix.  62. 

Isles. 


Aetat. GG.]    Mr.  Tytlci'  on  Johnsons  Journey.  349 

Isles.     His  observations  on  the  country  and  people  are  extremely 
correct,  judicious,  and  instructive '.' 

Mr.  Tytler,  the  acute  and  able  vindicator  of  Mary  Queen 
of  Scots,  in  one  of  his  letters  to  Mr.  James  Elphinstone, 
published  in  that  gentleman's  Forty  Years  Correspondence, 
says, 

'  I  read  Dr.  Johnson's  Tour  with  very  great  pleasure.  Some 
few  errours  he  has  fallen  into,  but  of  no  great  importance,  and 
those  are  lost  in  the  numberless  beauties  of  his  work. 

'  If  I  had  leisure,  I  could  perhaps  point  out  the  most  exception- 
able places ;  but  at  present  I  am  in  the  country,  and  have  not  his 
book  at  hand.  It  is  plain  he  meant  to  speak  well  of  Scotland ; 
and  he  has  in  my  apprehension  done  us  great  honour  in  the  most 
capital  article,  the  character  of  the  inhabitants.' 

His  private  letters  to  Mrs.  Thrale,  written  during  the 
course  of  his  journey,  which  therefore  may  be  supposed 
to  convey  his  genuine  feelings  at  the  time,  abound  in  such 
benignant  sentiments  towards  the  people  who  shewed  him 
civilities ',  that  no  man  whose  temper  is  not  very  harsh  and 
sour,  can  retain  a  doubt  of  the  goodness  of  his  heart. 

It  is  painful  to  recollect  with  what  rancour  he  was  assailed 
by  numbers  of  shallow  irritable  North  Britons,  on  account 
of  his  supposed  injurious  treatment  of  their  country  and 
countrymen,  in  his  Journey.  Had  there  been  any  just 
ground  for  such  a  charge,  would  the  virtuous  and  candid 
Dempster^  have  given  his  opinion  of  the  book,  in  the  terms 
which  I  have  quoted?  Would  the  patriotick  Knox'  have 
spoken  of  it  as  he  has  done?     Would  Mr.  Tytler,  surely 

' a  Scot^  if  ever  Scot  there  were,' 

'  Page  103.     BoswELL. 

"  From  Skye  he  wrote: — 'The  hospitality  of  this  remote  region  is 
like  that  of  the  golden  age.  We  have  found  ourselves  treated  at 
every  house  as  if  we  came  to  confer  a  benefit.'     Piozzi Letters,  i.  155. 

^  See  ante,  i.  513,  note  2. 

*  I  observed  with  much  regret,  while  the  first  cdilion  of  this  work 
was  passing  through  the  press  (.'\ug.  1790J,  that  this  ingenious  gentle- 
man was  dead.     Boswell. 

have 


350  The  jealousy  of  the  Scotch.  [a.d.  1775. 

have  expressed  himself  thus?  And  let  me  add,  that,  citizen 
of  the  world  as  I  hold  myself  to  be,  I  have  that  degree  of 
predilection  for  my  natale  solum,  nay,  I  have  that  just  sense 
of  the  merit  of  an  ancient  nation,  which  has  been  ever  re- 
nowned for  its  valour,  which  in  former  times  maintained  its 
independence  against  a  powerful  neighbour,  and  in  modern 
times  has  been  equally  distinguished  for  its  ingenuity  and 
industry  in  civilized  life,  that  I  should  have  felt  a  generous 
indignation  at  any  injustice  done  to  it.  Johnson  treated 
Scotland  no  worse  than  he  did  even  his  best  friends,  whose 
characters  he  used  to  give  as  they  appeared  to  him,  both  in 
light  and  shade.  Some  people,  who  had  not  exercised  their 
minds  sufficiently,  condemned  him  for  censuring  his  friends. 
But  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  whose  philosophical  penetration 
and  justness  of  thinking  were  not  less  known  to  those  who 
lived  with  him,  than  his  genius  in  his  art  is  admired  by  the 
world,  explained  his  conduct  thus :  '  He  was  fond  of  dis- 
crimination, which  he  could  not  show  without  pointing  out 
the  bad  as  well  as  the  good  in  every  character;  and  as  his 
friends  were  those  whose  characters  he  knew  best,  they  af- 
forded him  the  best  opportunity  for  showing  the  acuteness 
of  his  judgement.' 

He  expressed  to  his  friend  Mr.  Windham  of  Norfolk,  his 
wonder  at  the  extreme  jealousy  of  the  Scotch,  and  their  re- 
sentment at  having  their  country  described  by  him  as  it 
really  was  ;  when,  to  say  that  it  was  a  country  as  good  as 
England,  would  have  been  a  gross  falsehood.  '  None  of  us, 
(said  he,)  would  be  offended  if  a  foreigner  who  has  travelled 
here  should  say,  that  vines  and  olives  don't  grow  in  Eng- 
land.' And  as  to  his  prejudice  against  the  Scotch,  which  I 
always  ascribed  to  that  nationality  which  he  observed  in 
them,  he  said  to  the  same  gentleman,  'When  I  find  a  Scotch- 
man, to  whom  an  Englishman  is  as  a  Scotchman,  that  Scotch- 
man shall  be.  as  an  Englishman  to  me'.'  His  intimacy 
with  many  gentlemen  of  Scotland,  and  his  employing  so 
many  natives  of  that  country  as  his  amanuenses",  prove 

'  See  rt/z/t',  ii.  278.  '  See  rt/z/^",  i.  216. 

that 


Aetat.  66.]  The  Irish  a  fair  people.  351 

that  his  prejudice  was  not  virulent ;  and  I  have  deposited 
in  the  British  Museum,  amongst  other  pieces  of  his  writing, 
the  following  note  in  answer  to  one  from  me,  asking  if  he 
would  meet  me  at  dinner  at  the  Mitre,  though  a  friend  of 
mine,  a  Scotchman,  was  to  be  there  :— 

.  '  Mr.  Johnson  does  not  see  why  Mr.  Boswell  should  suppose  a 
Scotchman  less  acceptable  than  any  other  man.  He  will  be  at 
the  Mitre.' 

My  much-valued  friend  Dr.  Barnard,  now  Bishop  of  Killa- 
loe,  having  once  expressed  to  him  an  apprehension,  that  if 
he  should  visit  Ireland  he  might  treat  the  people  of  that 
countr\^  more  unfavourably  than  he  had  done  the  Scotch, 
he  answered,  with  strong  pointed  double-edged  wit, '  Sir, 
you  have  no  reason  to  be  afraid  of  me.  The  Irish  arc  not 
in  a  conspiracy  to  cheat  the  world  by  false  representations 
of  the  merits  of  their  countrymen'.  No,  Sir;  the  Irish  are 
a  FAIR  PEOPLE ; — they  never  speak  well  of  one  another.' 

Johnson  told  me  of  an  instance  of  Scottish  nationality, 
which  made  a  very  unfavourable  impression  upon  his  mind. 
A  Scotchman,  of  some  consideration  in  London,  solicited 
him  to  recommend,  by  the  weight  of  his  learned  authority, 
to  be  master  of  an  English  school,  a  person  of  whom  he  who 
recommended  him  confessed  he  knew  no  more  but  that  he 
was  his  countryman.  Johnson  was  shocked  at  this  uncon- 
scientious conduct  \ 

All  the  miserable  cavillings  against  his  Journey,  in  news- 
papers', magazines,  and   other   fugitive   publications,  I   can 

'  See  ante,  ii.  139,  339,  ^nd.  post,  under  March  30,  1783. 

*  Johnson  {Works,  ix.  158)  says  that '  the  mediocrity  of  knowledge' 
obtained  in  the  Scotch  universities,  '  countenanced  in  general  by  a 
national  combination  so  invidious  that  their  friends  cannot  defend  it, 
and  actuated  in  particulars  by  a  spirit  of  enterprise  so  vigorous  that 
their  enemies  are  constrained  to  praise  it,  enables  them  to  find,  or  to 
make  their  way,  to  employment,  riches,  and  distinction.' 

^  Macpherson  had  great  influence  with  the  news-papers.  Horace 
Walpole  wrote  in  February,  1776: — 'Macpherson,  the  Ossianite,  had 
a  pension  of  ;£6oo  a  year  from  the  Court,  to  supervise  the  newspa- 
pers.'    In  Dec.  1 78 1,  Walpole  mentions  the  dilFiculty  of  getting  'a 

speak 


352  The  right  way  to  abuse.  [a.d.  1775. 

speak  from  certain  knowledge,  only  furnished  him  with 
sport.  At  last  there  came  out  a  scurrilous  volume,  larger 
than  Johnson's  own,  filled  with  malignant  abuse,  under  a 
name,  real  or  fictitious,  of  some  low  man  in  an  obscure 
corner  of  Scotland,  though  supposed  to  be  the  work  of 
another  Scotchman,  who  has  found  means  to  make  him- 
self well  known  both  in  Scotland  and  England.  The  effect 
which  it  had  upon  Johnson  was,  to  produce  this  pleasant 
observation  to  Mr.  Seward,  to  whom  he  lent  the  book : 
'  This  fellow  must  be  a  blockhead.  They  don't  know^  how 
to  go  about  their  abuse.  Who  Avill  read  a  five  shilling 
book  against  me?  No,  Sir,  if  they  had  wit,  they  should 
have  kept  pelting  me  with  pamphlets'.' 

'  Mr.  Boswell  to  Dr.  Johnson. 

'Edinburgh,  Feb.  i8,  1775. 
'You  would  have  been  very  well  pleased  if  you  had  dined 
with  me  to-day.  I  had  for  my  guests,  Macquharrie,  young  Mac- 
lean of  Col,  the  successor  of  our  friend,  a  very  amiable  man, 
though  not  marked  with  such  active  qualities  as  his  brother ;  Mr. 
Maclean  of  Torloisk  in  Mull,  a  gentleman  of  Sir  Allan's  family  ; 
and  two  of  the  clan  Grant ;  so  that  the  Highland  and  Hebridean 
genius  reigned.  We  had  a  great  deal  of  conversation  about  you, 
and  drank  your  health  in  a  bumper.  The  toast  was  not  proposed 
by  me,  which  is  a  circumstance  to  be  remarked,  for  I  am  now  so 
connected  with  you,  that  any  thing  that  I  can  say  or  do  to  your 
honour  has  not  the  value  of  an  additional  compliment.  It  is  only 
giving  you  a  guinea  out  of  that  treasure  of  admiration  which 
already  belongs  to  you,  and  which  is  no  hidden  treasure ;  for  I 

vindicatory  paragraph'  inserted  in  the  papers.  '  Tliis  was  one  of  the 
great  grievances  of  the  time.  Macpherson  had  a  pension  of  ;{^8oo 
a  year  from  Court  for  inspecting  newspapers,  and  inserted  what  lies 
he  pleased,  and  prevented  whatever  he  disapproved  of  being  printed.' 
Journal  of  tJic  Reign  of  George  III,  ii.  17.  483. 

'  This  book  was  published  in  1779  under  the  title  of  'Remarks  on 
Dr.  Sainuel  Johnsons  Journey  to  the  Hebrides,  by  the  Rev.  Donald 
M'Nicol,  A.M.,  Minister  of  Lismore,  Argyleshire.'  In  181 7  it  was  re- 
printed at  Glasgow  together  with  ']o\\x\?>or\?,  Journey,  in  one  volume. 
The  Remarks  are  a  few  pages  shorter  than  ihejoitrney.  By  '  another 
Scotchman,'  Boswell  certainly  meant  Macpherson. 

suppose 


Aetat.  GG.]  BosweWs  belief  ill  Ossian.  353 

suppose  my  admiration  of  you  is  co-existent  with  the  knowledge 
of  my  character. 

'  I  find  that  the  Highlanders  and  Hebrideans  in  general  are 
much  fonder  of  your  youniey  than  the  low-country  or  hither  Scots. 
One  of  the  Grants  said  to-day,  that  he  was  sure  you  were  a  man  of 
a  good  heart,  and  a  candid  man,  and  seemed  to  hope  he  should  be 
able  to  convince  you  of  the  antiquity  of  a  good  proportion  of  the 
poems  of  Ossian.  After  all  that  has  passed,  I  think  the  matter 
is  capable  of  being  proved  to  a  certain  degree.  I  am  told  that 
Macpherson  got  one  old  Erse  MS.  from  Clanranald,  for  the  resti- 
tution of  which  he  executed  a  formal  obligation  ;  and  it  is  affirmed, 
that  the  Gaelick,  (call  it  Erse  or  call  it  Irish,)  has  been  written  in 
the  Highlands  and  Hebrides  for  many  centuries.  It  is  reasonable 
to  suppose,  that  such  of  the  inhabitants  as  acquired  any  learning, 
possessed  the  art  of  writing  as  well  as  their  Irish  neighbours,  and 
Celtick  cousins ;  and  the  question  is,  can  sufficient  evidence  be 
shewn  of  this  ? 

'Those  who  are  skilled  in  ancient  writings  can  determine  the 
age  of  MSS.  or  at  least  can  ascertain  the  century  in  which  they 
were  written ;  and  if  men  of  veracity,  who  are  so  skilled,  shall  tell 
us  that  MSS.  in  the  possession  of  families  in  the  Highlands  and 
isles  are  the  works  of  a  remote  age,  I  think  we  should  be  con- 
vinced by  their  testimony. 

'There  is  now  come  to  this  city,  Ranald  Macdonald  from  the 
Isle  of  Egg,  who  has  several  MSS.  of  Erse  poetry,  which  he  wishes 
to  publish  by  subscription.  I  have  engaged  to  take  three  copies 
of  the  book,  the  price  of  which  is  to  be  six  shillings,  as  I  would 
subscribe  for  all  the  Erse  that  can  be  printed  be  it  old  or  new,  that 
the  language  may  be  preserved.  This  man  says,  that  some  of  his 
manuscripts  are  ancient ;  and,  to  be  sure,  one  of  them  which  was 
shewn  to  me  does  appear  to  have  the  duskyness  of  antiquity. 

'The  enquiry  is  not  yet  quite  hopeless,  and  I  should  think  that 

the  exact  truth  may  be  discovered,  if  proper  means  be  used.     I 

am,  &c. 

'James  Boswell.' 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  I  am  sorry  that  I  could  get  no  books  for  my  friends  in  Scot- 
land.    Mr.  Strahan  has   at  last  promised  to   send  two  dozen  to 
you.      If   they  come,  put  the  names   of   my  friends   into  them ; 
11. — 23  you 


354  Laxity  of  Highland  conversation,     [a.d,  1775. 

you  may  cut  them  out ',  and  paste  them  with  a  little  starch  in  the 
book. 

'  You  then  are  going  wild  about  Ossian.  Why  do  you  think  any 
part  can  be  proved  ?  The  dusky  manuscript  of  Egg  is  probably 
not  fifty  years  old ;  if  it  be  an  hundred,  it  proves  nothing.  The 
tale  of  Clanranald  is  no  proof.  Has  Clanranald  told  it  ?  Can  he 
prove  it  ?  There  are,  I  believe,  no  Erse  manuscripts.  None  of 
the  old  families  had  a  single  letter  in  Erse  that  we  heard  of.  You 
say  it  is  likely  that  they  could  write.  The  learned,  if  any  learned 
there  were,  could  ;  but  knowing  by  that  learning,  some  written  lan- 
guage, in  that  language  they  wrote,  as  letters  had  never  been  applied 
to  their  own.  If  there  are  manuscripts,  let  them  be  shewn,  with 
some  proof  that  they  are  not  forged  for  the  occasion.  You  say 
many  can  remember  parts  of  Ossian.  I  believe  all  those  parts  are 
versions  of  the  English  ;  at  least  there  is  no  proof  of  their  antiquity. 

'Macpherson  is  said  to  have  made  some  translations  himself; 
and  having  taught  a  boy  to  write  it,  ordered  him  to  say  that  he 
had  learnt  it  of  his  grandmother.  The  boy,  when  he  grew  up, 
told  the  story.  This  Mrs.  Williams  heard  at  Mr.  Strahan's  table. 
Don't  be  credulous  ;  you  know  how  little  a  Highlander  can  be 
trusted".  Macpherson  is,  so  far  as  I  know,  very  quiet.  Is  not 
that  proof  enough  ?  Every  thing  is  against  him.  No  visible  man- 
uscript ;  no  inscription  in  the  language  :  no  correspondence  among 
friends  :  no  transaction  of  business,  of  which  a  single  scrap  re- 
mains in  the  ancient  families.  Macpherson's  pretence  is,  that  the 
character  was  Saxon.  If  he  had  not  talked  unskilfully  of  ?naJiu- 
scripts,  he  might  have  fought  with  oral  tradition  much  longer.  As 
to  Mr.  Grant's  information,  I  suppose  he  knows  much  less  of  the 
matter  than  ourselves. 

'  In  the  mean  time,  the  bookseller  says  that  the  sale^  is  sufficiently 


'  From  a  list  in  his  hand-writing.     Boswell. 

"  '  Such  is  the  laxity  of  Highland  conversation  that  the  enquirer  is 
kept  in  continual  suspense,  and  by  a  kind  of  intellectual  retrograda- 
tion,  knows  less  as  he  hears  more.'  Johnson's  Works,  ix.  47.  '  The 
Highlanders  are  not  much  accustomed  to  be  interrogated  by  others, 
and  seem  never  to  have  thought  upon  interrogating  themselves ;  so 
that,  if  they  do  not  know  what  they  tell  to  be  true,  they  likewise  do 
not  distinctly  perceive  it  to  be  false.'     lb.  114. 

^  Of  \\\?>  Jonr}iey  to  the  Western  Islands  of  Scotland.  Boswell.  It 
was  sold  at  five  shillings  a  copy.  It  did  not  reach  a  second  edition 
till  1785,  when  perhaps  a  fresh  demand  for  it  was  caused  by  the  publi- 

quick. 


Aetat.  66.]         BoswelVs  arrival  in  London.  355 

quick.  They  printed  four  thousand.  Correct  your  copy  wher- 
ever it  is  wrong,  and  bring  it  up.  Your  friends  will  all  be  glad 
to  see  you.  I  think  of  going  myself  into  the  country  about 
May. 

'  I  am  sorr)'  that  I  have  not  managed  to  send  the  book  sooner. 
I  have  left  four  for  you,  and  do  not  restrict  you  absolutely  to  fol- 
low my  directions  in  the  distribution.  You  must  use  your  own 
discretion. 

'  Make  my  compliments  to  Mrs.  Boswell :  I  suppose  she  is  now 
just  beginning  to  forgive  me. 

'  I  am,  dear  Sir,  your  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 

'Feb.  25,  1775.' 

On  Tuesday,  March  21,  I  arrived  in  London';  and  on 
repairing  to  Dr.  Johnson's  before  dinner,  found  him  in  his 
study,  sitting  with  Mr.  Peter  Garrick,  the  elder  brother  of 
David,  strongly  resembling  him  in  countenance  and  voice, 
but  of  more  sedate  and  placid  manners'.  Johnson  informed 
me,  that  '  though  Mr.  Beauclerk  was  in  great  pain,  it  was 
hoped  he  was  not  in  danger  ^  and  that  he  now  wished  to 
consult  Dr.  Heberden  to  try  the  effect  of  a  nciv  tindcrstand- 
ing.'  Both  at  this  interview,  and  in  the  evening  at  Mr. 
Thrale's,  where  he  and  Mr,  Peter  Garrick  and  I  met  again, 
he  was  vehement  on  the  subject  of  the  Ossian  controversy ; 
observing, '  We  do  not  know  that  there  are  any  ancient  Erse 

cation  of  Boswell's  Hebrides.  Boswell,  in  a  note, /r^^/,  April  28,  1778, 
says  that  4000  copies  were  sold  very  quickly.  Hannah  More  {Memoirs, 
i.  39j  says  that  Cadell  told  her  that  he  had  sold  4000  copies  the  first 
week.  This,  I  think,  must  be  an  exaggeration.  A  German  transla- 
tion was  brought  out  this  same  year. 

■  Boswell,  on  the  way  to  London,  wrote  to  Temple  : — '  I  have  con- 
tinual schemes  of  publication,  but  cannot  fix.  I  am  still  very  unhappy 
with  my  father.  We  are  so  totally  different  that  a  good  understand- 
ing is  scarcely  possible.  He  looks  on  my  going  to  London  just  now 
as  an  expedition,  zs  idle  and  extravagant,  when  in  reality  it  is  highly 
improving  to  me,  considering  the  company  which  I  enjoy.'  Letters  of 
Boswell,  p.  182. 

*  See  j!>^^/,  under  March  22,  177G. 

'  See  ante,  ii.  334. 

manuscripts ; 


356  Taxation  NO  Tyranny.  [a.d.  1775. 

manuscripts  ;  and  wc  have  no  other  reason  to  disbeheve  that 
there  are  men  with  three  heads,  but  that  we  do  not  know 
that  there  are  any  such  men.'  He  also  was  outrageous, 
upon  his  supposition  that  my  countrymen  '  loved  Scotland 
better  than  truth  ','  saying,  '  All  of  them, — nay  not  all, — but 
droves  of  them,  would  come  up,  and  attest  any  thing  for  the 
honour  of  Scotland.'  He  also  persevered  in  his  wild  allega- 
tion, that  he  questioned  if  there  was  a  tree  between  Edin- 
burgh and  the  English  border  older  than  himself  ^  I  assured 
him  he  was  mistaken,  and  suggested  that  the  proper  punish- 
ment would  be  that  he  should  receive  a  stripe  at  every  tree 
above  a  hundred  years  old,  that  was  found  within  that  space. 
He  laughed,  and  said, '  I  believe  I  might  submit  to  it  for  a 
baiibcc  !' 

The  doubts  which,  in  my  correspondence  with  him,  I  had 
ventured  to  state  as  to  the  justice  and  wisdom  of  the  con- 
duct of  Great-Britain  towards  the  American  colonies,  while  I 
at  the  same  time  requested  that  he  would  enable  me  to  in- 
form myself  upon  that  momentous  subject,  he  had  altogeth- 
er disregarded ;  and  had  recently  published  a  pamphlet,  en- 
titled. Taxation  no  Tyranny ;  an  aiiszucr  to  the  Resolutions 
and  Address  of  the  American  Congress  ^.'^ 

He  had  long  before  indulged  most  unfavourable  senti- 
ments of  our  fellow-subjects  in  America  \  For,  as  early  as 
1769,  I  was  told  by  Dr.  John   Campbell,  that  he  had  said 

'  '  A  Scotchman  must  be  a  very  sturdy  moralist  who  does  not  love 
Scotland  better  than  truth ;  he  will  always  love  it  better  than  inquiry; 
and  if  falsehood  flatters  his  vanity,  will  not  be  very  diligent  to  detect 
it.'     Johnson's  Works,  ix.  ii6. 

"  At  Slanes  Castle  in  Aberdeenshire  he  wrote : — '  I  had  now  trav- 
elled two  hundred  miles  in  Scotland,  and  seen  only  one  tree  not 
younger  than  myself.'  Works,  ix.  17.  Goldsmith  wrote  from  Edin- 
burgh on  Sept.  26,  1753: — 'Every  part  of  the  country  presents  the 
same  dismal  landscape.  No  grove,  nor  brook  lend  their  music  to  cheer 
the  stranger,  or  make  the  inhabitants  forget  their  poverty.'  Forster's 
Goldsmith,  i.  433. 

^  This,  like  his  pamphlet  on  Falkland's  Islands,  yua^?,  published  with- 
out his  name. 

^  See  Appendix. 

of 


Aetat.  66.]  TAXATION  NO    TyRANNY.  357 

of  them,  '  Sir,  they  are  a  race  of  convicts',  and  ought  to  be 
thankful  for  any  thing  we  allow  them  short  of  hanging.' 

Of  this  performance  I  avoided  to  talk  with  him  ;  for  I  had 
now  formed  a  clear  and  settled  opinion ',  that  the  people  of 
America  were  well  warranted  to  resist  a  claim  that  their  fel- 
low-subjects in  the  mother-country  should  have  the  entire 
command  of  their  fortunes,  by  taxing  them  without  their 
own  consent ;  and  the  extreme  violence  which  it  breathed, 
appeared  to  me  so  unsuitable  to  the  mildness  of  a  chris- 
tian philosopher,  and  so  directly  opposite  to  the  principles 
of  peace  which  he  had  so  beautifully  recommended  in  his 
pamphlet  respecting  Falkland's  Islands  \  that  I  was  sorry  to 
see  him  appear  in  so  unfavourable  a  light.  Besides,  I  could 
not  perceive  in  it  that  ability  of  argument,  or  that  felicity  of 
expression,  for  which  he  was,  upon  other  occasions,  so  emi- 
nent. Positive  assertion,  sarcastical  severity,  and  extrava- 
gant ridicule,  w^hich  he  himself  reprobated  as  a  test  of  truth, 
were  united  in  this  rhapsody. 

That  this  pamphlet  was  written  at  the  desire  of  those 
who  were  then  in  power,  I  have  no  doubt ;  and,  indeed,  he 

'  Convicts  were  sent  to  nine  of  the  American  settlements.  Accord- 
ing to  one  estimate  about  2,000  had  been  for  many  years  sent  annu- 
ally. '  Dr.  Lang,  after  comparing  different  estimates,  concludes  that 
the  number  sent  might  be  about  50,000  altogether.'  Pomy  Cyclo. 
XXV.  138. 

*  This  'clear  and  settled  opinion'  must  have  been  formed  in  three 
days,  and  between  Grantham  and  London.  For  from  that  Lincoln- 
shire town  he  had  written  to  Temple  on  March  18  : — '  As  to  American 
affairs,  I  have  really  not  studied  the  subject ;  it  is  too  much  for  me 
perhaps,  or  I  am  too  indolent  or  frivolous.  From  the  smattering 
which  newspapers  have  given  me,  I  have  been  of  different  minds  sev- 
eral times.  That  I  am  a  Tory,  a  lover  of  power  in  monarchy,  and  a 
discourager  of  much  liberty  in  the  people,  I  avow ;  but  it  is  not  clear 
to  me  that  our  colonies  are  completely  our  subjects.'  Letters  of  Bos- 
well,  p.  180.  Four  years  later  he  wrote  to  Temple  : — '  I  must  candidly 
tell  you  that  I  think  you  should  not  puzzle  yourself  with  political 
speculations  more  than  I  do;  neither  of  us  is  fit  for  that  sort  of  men- 
tal labour.'  lb.  243.  See  post,  Sept.  23,  1777,  for  a  contest  between 
Johnson  and  Boswcll  on  this  subject. 

*  See  ante,  ii.  154. 

owned 


358  Taxation  NO  Tyranny.  [a.d.  1775. 

owned  to  me,  that  it  had  been  revised  and  curtailed  by  some 
of  them.  He  told  me,  that  they  had  struck  out  one  pas- 
sage, which  was  to  this  effect : — 

'  That  the  Colonists  could  with  no  solidity  argue  from  their  not 
having  been  taxed  while  in  their  infancy,  that  they  should  not  now 
be  taxed.  We  do  not  put  a  calf  into  the  plow ;  we  wait  till  he  is 
an  ox." 

He  said,  *  They  struck  it  out  either  critically  as  too  ludicrous, 
or  politically  as  too  exasperating.  I  care  not  which.  It  was 
their  business.  If  an  architect  says,  I  will  build  five  stories, 
and  the  man  who  employs  him  says,  I  will  have  only  three, 
the  employer  is  to  decide.'  '  Yes,  Sir,  (said  I,)  in  ordinary 
cases.  But  should  it  be  so  when  the  architect  gives  his  skill 
and  labour  gratis  f 

Unfavourable  as  I  am  constrained  to  say  my  opinion  of 
this  pamphlet  was,  yet,  since  it  was  congenial  with  the  sen- 
timents of  numbers  at  that  time,  and  as  every  thing  relating 
to  the  writings  of  Dr.  Johnson  is  of  importance  in  literary 
history,  I  shall  therefore  insert  some  passages  which  were 
struck  out,  it  does  not  appear  why,  either  by  himself  or 
those  who  revised  it.  They  appear  printed  in  a  few  proof 
leaves  of  it  in  my  possession,  marked  with  corrections  in  his 
own  hand-writing.     I  shall  distinguish  them  by  Italicks. 

In  the  paragraph  where  he  says  the  Americans  were  in- 
cited to  resistance  by  European  intelligence  from 

'  Men  whom  they  thought  their  friends,  but  who  were  friends 
only  to  themselves  V 

there  followed, — 

'■and  made  by  their  selfishness,  the  enemies  0/ their  country.' 

And  the  next  paragraph  ran  thus : — 

'  On  the  original  contrivers  of  mischief,  rather  than  on  those  whom 
they  have  deluded,  let  an  insulted  nation  pour  out  its  vengeance.' 

■  Johnson's  Works,  v\.  261. 

The 


Aetat.6G.]  TAXATION  NO    TyRANNY,  359 

The  paragraph  which  came  next  was  in  these  words: — 

'  Unhappy  is  that  country  in  which  men  caji  hope  for  advancement  by 
favouring  its  enemies.  The  tranquillity  of  stable  goverjiment  is  not  al- 
ways easily  preserved  against  the  7nachinations  of  single  innovators  ; 
but  what  can  be  the  hope  of  quiet,  when  factions  hostile  to  the  legislature 
can  be  openly  formed  and  openly  avoived  T 

After  the  paragraph  which  now  concludes  the  pamphlet, 
there  followed  this,  in  which  he  certainly  means  the  great 
Earl  of  Chatham ',  and  glances  at  a  certain  popular  Lord 
Chancellor  \ 

'  If,  by  the  fortune  of  war,  they  drive  us  utterly  away,  what  they 
will  do  next  can  only  be  cojijectured.  If  a  new  monarchy  is  erected, 
they  will  want  a  King.  He  who  first  takes  into  his  hand  the  sceptre 
of  America,  should  have  a  name  of  good  ofnen.  William  has  been 
known  both  as  conqueror  and  deliverer ;  and  perhaps  England,  how- 
ever conte?)tned,  might  yet  supply   them   7vith  another   William. 

Whigs,  indeed,  are  not  willing  to  be  governed;  a?id  it  is  possible  that 
King  William  may  be  strongly  inclined  to  guide  their  measures :  but 

Whigs  have  been  cheated  like  other  mortals,  afid  suffered  their  leader 
to  become  their  tyrant,  under  the  7iame  of  their  Protector.  What 
more  they  will  receive  from  England,  ?w  man  cati  tell.  In  their  rudi- 
ments of  e?npire  they  7nay  want  a  Chancellor.' 

Then  came  this  paragraph  : — 

'  Their  mimbers  are,  at  present,  not  quite  sufficient  for  the  greatness 
which,  in  some  form  of  government  or  other,  is  to  rival  the  ancient  mon- 
archies ;  but  by  Dr.  Franklin's  rule  of  progression^,  they  -will,  in  a 

'  Four  years  earlier  he  had  also  attacked  him.  See  afite/u.  155, 
note  I. 

*  Lord  Camden,  formerly  Chief  Justice  Pratt.  Sec  ante,  ii.  83,  note 
I  ;  a.n6.  post,  April  14,  1775. 

^  'Our  people,' wrote  Franklin  in  1751  {Mejnoirs,vi.  2,,  10), 'must  at 
least  be  doubled  every  twenty  years.'  The  population  he  reckoned  at 
upwards  of  one  million.  Johnson  referred  to  this  rule  also  in  the  fol- 
lowing passage  : — '  We  arc  told  that  the  continent  of  North  America 
contains  three  millions,  not  of  men  merely,  but  of  wings,  of  whigs 
fierce  for  liberty  and  disdainful  of  dominion  ;  that  they  multiply  with 
the  fecundity  of  their  own  rattlesnakes,  so  that  every  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury doubles  their  number.'     Works,  vi.  227.     Burke,  in  his  Speech  on 

century 


360  Johnsons  Political  Tracts.        [a. d.  1775. 

century  and  a  quarter,  he  nwre  than  equal  to  the  inhabitants  of  Eu- 
rope. When  the  Whigs  of  Afuerica  are  thus  7nultiplied,  let  the  Princes 
of  the  earth  tremble  in  their  palaces.  If  they  should  continue  to  double 
and  to  double,  their  owtt  hemisphere  would  not  contain  thetn.  But  let 
not  our  boldest  oppugners  of  authority  look  forward  with  delight  to  this 
futurity  of  Whiggism.' 

How  it  ended  I  know  not,  as  it  is  cut  off  abruptly  at  the 
foot  of  the  last  of  these  proof  pages'. 

His  pamphlets  in  support  of  the  measures  of  administra- 
tion were  published  on  his  own  account,  and  he  afterwards 
collected  them  into  a  volume,  w^ith  the  title  of  Political 
Tracts,  by  the  AutJiour  of  the  Rambler,  with  this  motto  : — 

''  Fallitur  egregio  quisquis  sub  Principe  credit 
Senntium ;  nunquani  libertas  gratior  cxtat 

Quani  sub  Rege  pio.'  CLAUDIANUS^ 


ConciliatioJi  with  America,  a  fortnight  after  Johnson's  pamphlet  ap- 
peared, said,  'your  children  do  not  grow  faster  from  infancy  to  man- 
hood than  they  spread  from  families  to  communities,  and  from  villages 
to  nations.'     V^c^n^s  Burke,  i.  169. 

'  Dr.  T.  Campbell  records  on  April  20,  1775  {Diary,  p.  74),  that  'John- 
son said  the  first  thing  he  would  do  would  be  to  quarter  the  army  on 
the  cities,  and  if  any  refused  free  quarters,  he  would  pull  down  that 
person's  house,  if  it  was  joined  to  other  houses ;  but  would  burn  it  if 
it  stood  alone.  This  and  other  schemes  he  proposed  in  the  manuscript 
of  Taxation  710  Tyranny,  but  these,  he  said,  the  Ministry  expunged.' 
See  post,  April  15,  1778,  where,  talking  of  the  Americans,  Johnson 
exclaimed. '  he'd  burn  and  destroy  them.'  On  June  11,  1781,  Campbell 
records  {ib.  p.  88)  that  Johnson  said  to  him : — '  Had  we  treated  the 
Americans  as  we  ought,  and  as  they  deserved,  we  should  have  at  once 
razed  all  their  towns  and  let  them  enjoy  their  forests.'  Campbell 
justly  describes  this  talk  as  '  wild  rant.' 

'  He  errs  who  deems  obedience  to  a  prince 

Slav'ry — a  happier  freedom  never  reigns 

Than  with  a  pious  monarch.' 

5///.  iii.  113.     Croker. 
This  volume  was  published  in  1776.     The  copy  in  the  library  of  Pem- 
broke College,  Oxford,  bears  the  inscription  in  Johnson's  hand  :  '  To 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  from  the  Authour.'   On  the  title-page  Sir  Joshua 
has  written  his  own  name. 

These 


Aetat.  66.]  Dr.  Joseph  Towers.  36 1 

These  pamphlets  drew  upon  him  numerous  attacks'. 
Against  the  common  weapons  of  hterary  warfare  he  was 
hardened  ;  but  there  were  two  instances  of  animadversion 
which  I  communicated  to  him,  and  from  what  I  could  judge, 
both  from  his  silence  and  his  looks,  appeared  to  me  to  im- 
press him  much. 

One  was,  A  Letter  to  Dr.  Savnicl  JoJinscn,  occasioned  by  his 
late  political  Publications.  It  appeared  previous  to  his  Tax- 
ation no  Tyranny,  and  was  written  by  Dr.  Joseph  Towers ''. 
In  that  performance,  Dr.  Johnson  was  treated  with  the  re- 
spect due  to  so  eminent  a  man,  while  his  conduct  as  a  polit- 
ical writer  was  boldly  and  pointedly  arraigned,  as  inconsist- 
ent with  the  character  of  one,  who,  if  he  did  employ  his  pen 
upon  politics, 

'  It  might  reasonably  be  expected  should  distinguish  himself,  not 
by  party  violence  and  rancour,  but  by  moderation  and  by  wisdom.' 

It  concluded  thus  : — 

'  I  would,  however,  wish  you  to  remember,  should  you  again  ad- 
dress the  publick  under  the  character  of  a  political  writer,  that  lux- 
uriance of  imagination  or  energy  of  language  will  ill  compensate 
for  the  want  of  candour,  of  justice,  and  of  truth.  And  I  shall  only 
add,  that  should  I  hereafter  be  disposed  to  read,  as  I  heretofore 
have  done,  the  most  excellent  of  all  your  performances.  The  Rambler, 
the  pleasure  which  I  have  been  accustomed  to  find  in  it  will  be 
much  diminished  by  the  reflection  that  the  writer  of  so  moral,  so 
elegant,  and  so  valuable  a  work,  was  capable  of  prostituting  his  tal- 
ents in  such  productions  as  The  False  Alarm,  the  Thoughts  on  the 
Transactions  respect i/ig  Falkland's  Islands,  and  The  Fat  riot.' 

I  am  willing  to  do  justice  to  the  merit  of  Dr.  Towers, 
of  whom  I  will  say,  that  although  I  abhor  his  Whiggish 

'  R.  B.  Sheridan  thought  of  joining  in  these  attacks.  In  his  Lz/e 
by  Moore  (i.  151)  fragments  of  his  projected  answer  are  given.  He 
intended  to  attack  Johnson  on  the  side  of  his  pension.  One  thought 
he  varies  three  times.  '  Such  pamphlets,'  he  writes,  'will  be  as  trifling 
and  insincere  as  the  venal  quit-rent  of  a  birth-(hiy  ode.'  This  iigain 
appears  as  '  The  easy  quit-rent  of  rcfmcd  panegyric,'  and  yet  again  as 
'  The  miserable  quit-rent  of  an  annual  pamphlet.' 

'  See  j?^<?5-/,  beginning  of  1781. 

democratical 


362  Johnson  s  pension  attacked.  [a.d.  1775. 

democratical  notions  and  propensities,  (for  I  will  not  call 
them  principles,)  I  esteem  him  as  an  ingenious,  knowing, 
and  very  convivial  man. 

The  other  instance  was  a  paragraph  of  a  letter  to  me, 
from  my  old  and  most  intimate  friend,  the  Reverend  Mr, 
Temple,  who  wrote  the  character  of  Gray,  which  has  had 
the  honour  to  be  adopted  both  by  Mr.  Mason  and  Dr.  John- 
son in  their  accounts  of  that  poet '.     The  words  were, — 

'  How  can  your  great,  I  will  not  say  your  pious,  but  your  moral 
friend,  support  the  barbarous  measures  of  administration,  which 
they  have  not  the  face  to  ask  even  their  infidel  pensioner  Hume  to 
defend  ^' 

However  confident  of  the  rectitude  of  his  own  mind, 
Johnson  may  have  felt  sincere  uneasiness  that  his  conduct 
should  be  erroneously  imputed  to  unworthy  motives,  by 
good  men ;  and  that  the  influence  of  his  valuable  writings 
should  on  that  account  be  in  any  degree  obstructed  or  less- 
ened'. 

'  S^Qpost,  Aug.  24, 1782. 

^  Boswell  wrote  to  Temple  on  June  19, 1775  : — 'Yesterday  I  met  Mr. 
Hume  at  Lord  Kames's.  They  joined  in  attacking  Dr.  Johnson  to  an 
absurd  pitch.  Mr.  Hume  said  he  would  give  me  half-a-crown  for  every 
page  of  his  Dictio7iary  in  which  he  could  not  find  an  absurdity,  if  I 
would  give  him  half-a-crown  for  every  page  in  which  he  did  find  one : 
he  talked  so  insolently  really,  that  I  calmly  determined  to  be  at  him ; 
so  I  repeated,  by  way  of  telling  that  Dr.  Johnson  coidd  be  touched,  the 
admirable  passage  in  your  letter,  how  the  Ministry  had  set  him  to 
write  in  a  way  that  they  "  could  not  ask  even  their  infidel  pensioner 
Hume  to  write."  When  Hume  asked  if  it  was  from  an  American,  I 
said,  No,  it  was  from  an  English  gentleman.  "  Would  a  gctitleman 
write  so  ?"  said  he.  In  short,  Davy  was  finely  punished  for  his  treat- 
ment of  my  revered  friend ;  and  he  deserved  it  richly,  both  for  his 
petulance  to  so  great  a  character  and  for  his  talking  so  before  me.' 
Letters  of  Boswell,  p.  204.  Hume's  pension  was  ^400.  He  obtained 
it  through  Lord  Hertford,  the  English  ambassador  in  Paris,  under 
whom  he  had  served  as  secretary  to  the  embassy.  J.  PL  Burton's 
Huffie,  ii.  289. 

^  Dr.  T.  Campbell  records  on  March  16  of  this  year  {Diary,  p.  36)  : — 
'  Thrale  asked  Dr.  Johnson  what  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  said  of  Taxa- 
iz'on  no  Tyratttiy.     "  Sir  Joshua,"  quoth  the  Doctor,  "  has  not  read  it." 

He 


Aetat.  66.]       BosweWs  belief  ill  second  sight.  363 

He  complained  to  a  Right  Honourable  friend'  of  dis- 
tinguished talents  and  very  elegant  manners,  with  whom 
he  maintained  a  long  intimacy,  and  whose  generosity  tow- 
ards him  will  afterwards  appear '\  that  his  pension  having 
been  given  to  him  as  a  literary  character,  he  had  been 
applied  to  by  administration  to  write  political  pamphlets ; 
and  he  was  even  so  much  irritated,  that  he  declared  his 
resolution  to  resign  his  pension.  His  friend  shewed  him 
the  impropriety  of  such  a  measure,  and  he  afterwards  ex- 
pressed his  gratitude,  and  said  he  had  received  good  ad- 
vice. To  that  friend  he  once  signified  a  wish  to  have  his 
pension  secured  to  him  for  his  life ;  but  he  neither  asked 
nor  received  from  government  any  reward  whatsoever  for 
his  political  labours  \ 

On  Friday,  March  24, 1  met  him  at  the  Literary  Club, 
where  were  Mr.  Beauclerk,  Mr.  Langton,  Mr.  Colman,  Dr. 
Percy,  Mr.  Vesey,  Sir  Charles  Bunbury,  Dr.  George  For- 
dyce,  Mr.  Steevens,  and  Mr.  Charles  Fox.  Before  he  came 
in,  we  talked  of  his  Journey  to  the  Western  Islands,  and  of 
his  coming  away  'willing  to  believe  the  second  sight*,' 
which  seemed  to  excite  some  ridicule.  I  was  then  so  im- 
pressed with  the  truth  of  many  of  the  stories  of  it  w^hich 
I  had  been  told,  that  I  avowed  my  conviction,  saying, '  He 
is  only  willing  to  believe :   I  do  believe.     The  evidence  is 

"  I  suppose,"  quoth  Thrale,  "  he  has  been  very  busy  of  late."  "  No," 
says  the  Doctor, "  but  I  never  look  at  his  pictures,  so  he  won't  read 
my  writings."  He  asked  Johnson  if  he  had  got  Miss  Reynolds's  opin- 
ion, for  she,  it  seems,  is  a  poHtician.  "As  to  that,"  quoth  the  Doctor, 
"  it  is  no  great  matter,  for  she  could  not  tell  after  she  had  read  it  on 
which  side  of  the  question  Mr.  Burke's  speech  was."  ' 
'  W.  G.  Hamilton. 

*  Sec  post,  Nov.  19,  1783. 

'  Sixteen  days  after  this  pamphlet  was  published.  Lord  North,  as 
Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  proposed  that  the  degree  of 
Doctor  in  Civil  Law  should  be  conferred  on  Johnson  (/>os/,  ii.  379). 
Perhaps  the  Chancellor  in  this  was  cheaply  rewarding  the  service  that 
had  been  done  to  the  Minister.     See  a/t/r,  i.  432. 

*  Johnson's  /o7ir;'ey  to  the  Western  /stands  of  Scottand,  edit.  1785, 
p.  256.    [Johnson's  Works,  ix.  108.]    Boswell.    Sec  ante,  ii.  12,  note  2. 

cnou<jh 


364  Swift's  Tale  of  a  Tub.  [a.d.  1775. 

enough  for  mc,  though  not  for  his  great  mind.  What  will 
not  fill  a  quart  bottle  will  fill  a  pint  bottle.  I  am  filled 
with  belief'.'     'Are  you?  (said  Colman,)  then  cork  it  up.' 

I  found  his  Journey  t\\Q.  common  topick  of  conversation  in 
London  at  this  time,  wherever  I  happened  to  be.  At  one 
of  Lord  Mansfield's  formal  Sunday  evening  conversations, 
strangely  called  Levees,  his  Lordship  addressed  me,  '  We 
have  all  been  reading  your  travels,  Mr.  Boswell.'  I  an- 
swered, '  I  was  but  the  humble  attendant  of  Dr.  Johnson.' 
The  Chief  Justice  replied,  with  that  air  and  manner 'which 
none,  who  ever  saw  and  heard,  him,  can  forget, '  He  speaks 
ill  of  nobody  but  Ossian.' 

Johnson  was  in  high  spirits  this  evening  at  the  club,  and 
talked  with  great  animation  and  success.  He  attacked 
Swift,  as  he  used  to  do  upon  all  occasions.  The  Tale  of 
a  Tub  is  so  much  superiour  to  his  other  writings,  that  one 
can  hardly  believe  he  was  the  authour  of  it':  'there  is  in 

^  He  had  written  to  Temple  six  days  earlier  : — '  Second  sight  pleases 
my  superstition  which,  you  know,  is  not  small,  and  being  not  of  the 
gloomy  but  the  grand  species,  is  an  enjoyment;  and  I  go  further  than 
Mr.  Johnson,  for  the  facts  which  I  heard  convinced  me.'  Letters  of 
Boswell,  p.  179.  When  ten  years  later  he  published  his  Tour,  he  said 
(Nov.  10,  1773)  that  he  had  returned  from  the  Hebrides  with  a  con- 
siderable degree,  of  faith  ;  '  but,'  he  added,  '  since  that  time  my  belief 
in  those  stories  has  been  much  weakened.' 

^  This  doubt  has  been  much  agitated  on  both  sides,  I  think  without 
good  reason.  See  Addison's  Freeholder,  yi^Ly  4,  1714  [The  Freehold- 
er was  published  from  Dec.  17 15,  to  June,  17 16.  In  the  number  for 
May  4  there  is  no  mention  of  The  Tale  of  a  Tub]  ;  An  Apology  for  the 
Tale  of  a  Tub  [Swift's  Works,  ed.  1803,  iii.  20]  ; — Dr.  Hawkesworth's 
Preface  to  Swift's  Works,  and  Swift's  Letter  to  Tooke  the  Printer,  and 
Tooke's  Answer,  in  that  collection; — Sheridan's  Life  of  Swift ; — Mr. 
Courtenay's  note  on  p.  3  of  his  Foetical  Review  of  the  Literary  and 
Moral  Character  ofDr.fohnson;  and  Mr.  Cooksey's  Essay  on  the  Life 
and  Character  of  fohn  Lord  Soiners,  Baron  of  Evesham. 

Dr.  Johnson  here  speaks  only  to  the  internal  evidence.  I  take  leave 
to  dififer  from  him,  having  a  very  high  estimation  of  the  powers  of  Dr. 
Swift.  His  Sentiments  of  a  Church-of -England-man,  his  Sermon  on  the 
Trinity,  and  other  serious  pieces,  prove  his  learning  as  well  as  his 
acuteness  in  logick  and  metaphysicks ;  and  his  various  compositions 

it 


Aetat.  6G.]  Sivift's    TaLE   OF  A    TuB.  365 

it  such  a  vigour  of  mind,  such  a  swarm  of  thoughts,  so 
much  of  nature,  and  art,  and  Hfe'.'  I  wondered  to  hear 
him  say  of  Gulliver  s  Travels,  'When  once  you  have  thought 
of  big  men  and  Httle  men,  it  is  very  easy  to  do  all  the  rest.' 
I  endeavoured  to  make  a  stand  for  Swift,  and  tried  to  rouse 
those  who  were  much  more  able  to  defend  him  ;  but  in 
vain.  Johnson  at  last,  of  his  own  accord,  allowed  very 
great  merit  to  the  inventory  of  articles  found  in  the  pocket 
of  the  ]\Ian  Mountain,  particularly  the  description  of  his 
watch,  which  it  was  conjectured  was  his  GOD,  as  he  con- 
sulted it  upon  all  occasions.  He  observed,  that  '  Swift  put 
his  name  to  but  two  things,  (after  he  had  a  name  to  put,) 
The  Plan  for  the  Improvement  of  the  English  Language,  and 
the  last  Drapiers  Letter"^.' 

From  Swift,  there  was  an  easy  transition  to  Mr.  Thomas 
Sheridan. — JOHXSON.  'Sheridan  is  a  wonderful  admirer' of 
the  tragedy  of  Douglas,  and  presented  its  authour  with  a 
gold  medal.  Some  years  ago,  at  a  coffee-house  in  Oxford, 
I  called   to   him,  "  Mr.  Sheridan,  Mr.  Sheridan,  how   came 

of  a  different  cast  exhibit  not  only  wit,  humour,  and  ridicule ;  but  a 
knowledge  '  of  nature,  and  art,  and  life :'  a  combination  therefore  of 
those  powers,  when  (as  the  Apology  says)  '  the  authour  was  young,  his 
invention  at  the  heighth,  and  his  reading  fresh  in  his  head,'  might 
surely  produce  The  Tale  of  a  Tub.     Boswell. 

'  '  His  Tale  of  a  Tub  has  little  resemblance  to  his  other  pieces.  It 
exhibits  a  vehemence  and  rapidity  of  mind,  a  copiousness  of  images 
and  vivacity  of  diction  such  as  he  afterwards  never  possessed,  or  never 
exerted.  It  is  of  a  mode  so  distinct  and  peculiar  that  it  must  be  con- 
sidered by  itself;  what  is  true  of  that  is  not  true  of  any  thing  else 
which  he  has  written.'  Johnson's  ]Vorks,  viii.  220.  At  the  conclusion 
of  the  Life  of  Swift  (ib.  228),  Johnson  allows  him  one  great  merit : — 
'  It  was  said  in  a  preface  to  one  of  the  Irish  editions  that  Swift  had 
never  been  known  to  take  a  single  thought  from  any  writer,  ancient 
or  modern.  This  is  not  literally  true ;  but  perhaps  no  writer  can  eas- 
ily be  found  that  has  borrowed  so  little,  or  that  in  all  his  excellencies 
and  all  his  defects  has  so  well  maintained  his  claim  to  be  considered 
as  original.'     See  atite,  i.  524. 

^  Johnson  in  his  Dictionary,  under  the  article  sJunw,  quotes  Swift 
in  one  example,  and  in  the  next  Gulliver  s  Travels,  not  adm.itting,  it 
should  seem,  that  Swift  had  written  that  book. 

you 


366  John  Homes  gold  medal.  [a.d.  1775. 

you  to  give  a  gold  medal  to  Home,  for  writing  that  foolish 
play'?"  This,  you  see,  was  wanton  and  insolent;  but  I 
meant  to  be  wanton  and  insolent.  A  medal  has  no  value 
but  as  a  stamp  of  merit.  And  was  Sheridan  to  assume  to 
himself  the  right  of  giving  that  stamp?  If  Sheridan  was 
magnificent  enough  to  bestow  a  gold  medal  as  an  honorary 
reward  of  dramatick  excellence,  he  should  have  requested 
one  of  the  Universities  to  choose  the  person  on  whom  it 
should  be  conferred.  Sheridan  had  no  right  to  give  a  stamp 
of  merit :  it  was  counterfeiting  Apollo's  coin\' 

'  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Oct.  26,  1773.  David  Hume  wrote  of 
Home's  Agi's : — '  I  own,  though  I  could  perceive  fine  strokes  in  that 
tragedy,  I  never  could  in  general  bring  myself  to  like  it :  the  author, 
I  thought,  had  corrupted  his  taste  by  the  imitation  of  Shakespeare, 
whom  he  ought  only  to  have  admired.'  J.  H.  Burton's  Hume,  i.  392. 
About  Douglas  he  wrote : — '  I  am  persuaded  it  will  be  esteemed  the 
best,  and  by  French  critics  the  only  tragedy  of  our  language.'  lb.  ii. 
17.  Hume  perhaps  admired  it  the  more  as  it  was  written,  to  use  his 
own  words, '  by  a  namesake  of  mine.'  lb.  i.  316.  Home  is  pronounced 
Himie.  He  often  wrote  of  his  friend  as  '  Mr.  John  Hume,  alias  Home.' 
A  few  days  before  his  death  he  added  the  following  codicil  to  his  will : 
— '  I  leave  to  my  friend  Mr.  John  Home,  of  Kilduff,  ten  dozen  of  my 
old  claret  at  his  choice ;  and  one  single  bottle  of  that  other  liquor 
called  port.  I  also  leave  to  him  six  dozen  of  port,  provided  that  he  at- 
tests, under  his  hand,  signed  John  Hume,  that  he  has  himself  alone  fin- 
ished that  bottle  at  two  sittings.  By  this  concession  he  will  at  once 
terminate  the  only  two  differences  that  ever  arose  between  us  con- 
cerning temporal  matters.'  lb.  ii.  506.  Sir  Walter  Scott  wrote  in  his 
Diary  in  1827  :—'  I  finished  the  review  of  John  Home's  works,  which, 
after  all,  are  poorer  than  I  thought  them.  Good  blank  verse,  and 
stately  sentiment,  but  something  luke-warmish,  excepting  Douglas, 
which  is  certainly  a  masterpiece.  Even  that  does  not  stand  the  closet. 
Its  merits  are  for  the  stage ;  and  it  is  certainly  one  of  the  best  acting 
plays  going.'     Lockhart's  Scott,  ix.  100. 

*  Sheridan,  says  Mr.  S.  Whyte  {Miscelhutea  Nova,  p.  45),  brought  out 
Douglas  at  the  Dublin  Theatre.  The  first  two  nights  it  had  great  suc- 
cess. The  third  night  was  as  usual  to  be  the  author's.  It  had  mean- 
while got  abroad  that  he  was  a  clergyman.  This  play  was  considered 
a  profanation,  a  faction  was  raised,  and  the  third  night  did  not  pay  its 
expenses.  It  was  Whyte  who  suggested  that,  by  way  of  consolation, 
Sheridan  should  give  Home  a  gold  medal.  The  inscription  said  that 
he  presented  it  to  him  '  for  having  enriched  the  stage  with  a  perfect 

On 


Aetat.  OG.]  The  Noiijtirors.  367 

On  Monday,  March  27,  I  breakfasted  with  him  at  Mr. 
Strahan's.  He  told  us,  that  he  was  engaged  to  go  that 
evening  to  Mrs.  Abington's  benefit.  '  She  was  visiting  some 
ladies  whom  I  was  visiting,  and  begged  that  I  would  come 
to  her  benefit.  I  told  her  I  could  not  hear :  but  she  in- 
sisted so  much  on  my  coming,  that  it  would  have  been 
brutal  to  have  refused  her.'  This  was  a  speech  quite  char- 
acteristical.  He  loved  to  bring  forward  his  having  been  in 
the  gay  circles  of  life ;  and  he  was,  perhaps,  a  little  vain 
of  the  solicitations  of  this  elegant  and  fashionable  actress. 
He  told  us,  the  play  was  to  be  TJie  Hypocrite,  altered  from 
Gibber's  Nonjuror\  so  as  to  satirize  the  Methodists.  '  I  do 
not  think,  (said  he,)  the  character  of  The  Hypocrite  justly 
applicable  to  the  Methodists,  but  it  was  very  applicable  to 
the  Nonjurors'.  I  once  said  to  Dr.  Madan',  a  clergyman 
of  Ireland,  who  was  a  great  Whig,  that  perhaps  a  Non- 
juror would  have  been  less  criminal  in  taking  the  oaths 
imposed  by  the  ruling  power,  than  refusing  them ;  because 
refusing  them,  necessarily  laid  him  under  almost  an  irre- 
sistible temptation  to  be  more  criminal ;  for,  a  man  must 
live,  and  if  he  precludes  himself  from  the  support  furnished 
by  the  establishment,  will  probably  be  reduced  to  very 
wicked  shifts  to  maintain  himself*.'     BOSWELL.  '  I  should 

tragedy.'  Whyte  took  the  medal  to  London.  When  he  was  close  at 
his  journey's  end,  '  I  was,'  he  writes,  '  stopped  by  highwaymen,  and 
preserved  the  medal  by  the  sacrifice  of  my  purse  at  the  imminent  peril 
of  my  life.' 

'  '  No  merit  now  the  dear  Nonjuror  claims, 

Moliere's  old  stubble  in  a  moment  flames.' 
The  Nonjuror  was  'a  comedy  thrashed  out  of  Moliere's  Tartuffc! 
The  Dunciad,  i.  253. 

*  See  post,  June  9,  1784 ;  also  Macaulay's  England,  ch.  xiv.  (cd.  1874, 
v.  94),  for  remarks  on  what  Johnson  here  says. 

'  See  ante,  i.  368,  where  his  name  is  spelt  Madden. 

*  This  was  not  merely  a  cursory  remark;  for  in  his  IJ/e  of  Fcnto7i 
he  observes, '  With  many  other  wise  and  virtuous  men,  who  at  that 
time  of  discord  and  debate  (about  the  beginning  of  this  century)  con- 
sulted conscience  [whether]  well  or  ill  informed,  more  than  interest, 
he  doubted  the  legality  of  the  government ;  and  refusing  to  qualify 

think, 


368  The  Nonjurors.  [a.d.  1775. 

think,  Sir,  that  a  man  who  took  the  oaths  contrary  to  his 
principles,  was  a  determined  wicked  man,  because  he  was 
sure  he  was  committing  perjury ;  whereas  a  Nonjuror  might 
be  insensibly  led  to  do  what  was  wrong,  without  being  so 
directly  conscious  of  it,'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir,  a  man  who 
goes  to  bed  to  his  patron's  wife  is  pretty  sure  that  he  is 
committing  wickedness.'  BOSWELL.  '  Did  the  nonjuring 
clergymen  do  so.  Sir?'  JOHNSON.  'I  am  afraid  many  of 
them  did.' 

I  was  startled  at  his  argument,  and  could  by  no  means 
think  it  convincing.  Had  not  his  own  father  complied 
with  the  requisition  of  government',  (as  to  which  he  once 

himself  for  publick  employment,  by  taking  the  oaths  [by  the  oaths] 
required,  left  the  University  without  a  degree.'  This  conduct  John- 
son calls '  perverseness  of  integrity.'     [Johnson's  Works,  viii.  54.] 

The  question  concerning  the  morality  of  taking  oaths,  of  whatever 
kind,  imposed  by  the  prevailing  power  at  the  time,  rather  than  to  be 
excluded  from  all  consequence,  or  even  any  considerable  usefulness 
in  society,  has  been  agitated  with  all  the  acuteness  of  casuistry.  It 
is  related,  that  he  who  devised  the  oath  of  abjuration,  profligately 
boasted,  that  he  had  framed  a  test  which  should  '  damn  one  half  of 
the  nation,  and  starve  the  other.'  Upon  minds  not  exalted  to  inflex- 
ible rectitude,  or  minds  in  which  zeal  for  a  party  is  predominant  to 
excess,  taking  that  oath  against  conviction  may  have  been  palliated 
under  the  plea  of  necessity,  or  ventured  upon  in  heat,  as  upon  the 
whole  producing  more  good  than  evil. 

At  a  county  election  in  Scotland,  many  years  ago,  when  there  was  a 
warm  contest  between  the  friends  of  the  Hanoverian  succession,  and 
those  against  it,  the  oath  of  abjuration  having  been  demanded,  the 
freeholders  upon  one  side  rose  to  go  away.  Upon  which  a  very  san- 
guine gentleman,  one  of  their  number,  ran  to  the  door  to  stop  them, 
calling  out  with  much  earnestness,  '  Stay,  stay,  my  friends,  and  let  us 
swear  the  rogues  out  of  it !'  Boswell.  Johnson,  writing  of  the  oaths 
required  under  the  Militia  Bill  of  1756,  says: — 'The  frequent  miposi- 
tion  of  oaths  has  almost  ruined  the  morals  of  this  unhappy  nation, 
and  of  a  nation  without  morals  it  is  of  small  importance  who  shall  be 
king.'     Lit.  Mag.  1756,  i.  59. 

'  Dr.  Harwood  sent  me  the  following  extract  from  the  book  con- 
taining the  proceedings  of  the  corporation  of  Lichfield:  '19th  July, 
1712.  Agreed  that  Mr.  Michael  Johnson  be,  and  he  is  hereby  elected 
a  magistrate  and  brother  of  their  incorporation ;  a  day  is  given  him 

observed 


Aetat.  G6.]  Mr.  Stvahaii  s  apprentice.  369 

observed  to  me,  when  I  pressed  him  upon  it, '  That,  Sir,  he 
was  to  settle  with  himself,')  he  would  probably  have  thought 
more  unfavourably  of  a  Jacobite  who  took  the  oaths: 

'- had  he  not  resembled 


jNIy  father  as  he  swore '.' 

I\Ir.  Strahan  talked  of  launching  into  the  great  ocean  of 
London,  in  order  to  have  a  chance  for  rising  into  eminence ; 
and,  observing  that  many  men  were  kept  back  from  trying 
their  fortunes  there,  because  they  were  born  to  a  compe- 
tency, said, '  Small  certainties  are  the  bane  of  men  of  tal- 
ents" ;'  which  Johnson  confirmed.  Mr.  Strahan  put  Johnson 
in  mind  of  a  remark  which  he  had  made  to  him  ;  '  There 
are  few  ways  in  which  a  man  can  be  more  innocently  em- 
ployed than  in  getting  money.'  '  The  more  one  thinks 
of  this,  (said  Strahan,)  the  juster  it  will  appear.' 

Mr.  Strahan  had  taken  a  poor  boy  from  the  country  as  an 
apprentice,  upon  Johnson's  recommendation.  Johnson  hav- 
ing enquired  after  him,  said, '  Mr.  Strahan,  let  me  have  five 
guineas  on  account,  and  I'll  give  this  boy  one.     Nay,  if  a 

to  Thursday  next  to  take  the  oath  of  fidelity  and  allegiance,  and  the 
oath  of  a  magistrate.  Signed,  &c.'— '25th  July,  1712.  Mr.  Johnson 
took  the  oath  of  allegiance  and  that  he  believed  there  was  no  tran- 
substantiation  in  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  before,  &c.' — 
Croker. 

*  A  parody  on  Macbeth,  act  ii.  sc.  2. 

*  Lord  Southampton  asked  Bishop  Watson  of  Llandaff  '  how  he 
was  to  bring  up  his  son  so  as  to  make  him  get  forwards  in  the  world. 
"  I  l:now  of  but  one  way,"  replied  the  Bishop;  "give  him  parts  and 
poverty."  "  Well  then,"  replied  Lord  S.,  "  if  God  has  given  him  parts, 
I  will  manage  as  to  the  poverty." '  H.  C.  Robinson's  Diary,  i.  337. 
Lord  Eldon  said  that  Thurlow  promised  to  give  him  a  post  worth 
about  £\(iO  a  year,  but  he  never  did.  'In  after  life,'  said  Eldon, '  I 
inquired  of  him  why  he  had  not  fulfilled  his  promise.  His  answer 
was  curious : — "  It  would  have  been  your  ruin.  Young  men  are  very 
apt  to  be  content  when  they  get  something  to  live  upon ,  so  when  I 
saw  what  you  were  made  of,  I  determined  to  break  my  promise  to 
make  you  work ;"  and  I  dare  say  he  was  right,  for  there  is  nothing 
does  a  young  lawyer  so  much  good  as  to  be  half  starved.'  Twiss's 
Etdon,  i.  134. 

II.— 24  man 


370  Mr.  Strahans  apprentice.  [a.d.  1775. 

man  recommends  a  boy,  and  does  nothing  for  him,  it  is  sad 
work.     Call  him  down.' 

I  followed  him  into  the  court-yard ',  behind  Mr.  Strahan's 
house ;  and  there  I  had  a  proof  of  what  I  had  heard  him 
profess,  that  he  talked  alike  to  all.  '  Some  people  tell  you 
that  they  let  themselves  down  to  the  capacity  of  their  hear- 
ers. I  never  do  that.  I  speak  uniformly,  in  as  intelligible 
a  manner  as  I  can^' 

'Well,  my  boy,  how  do  you  go  on?' — 'Pretty  well,  Sir; 
but  they  are  afraid  I  an't  strong  enough  for  some  parts  of 
the  business.'  JOHNSON.  'Why  I  shall  be  sorr)^  for  it;  for 
when  you  consider  with  how  little  mental  power  and  corpo- 
real labour  a  printer  can  get  a  guinea  a  week,  it  is  a  very 
desirable  occupation  for  you.  Do  you  hear, — take  all  the 
pains  you  can  ;  and  if  this  does  not  do,  we  must  think  of 
some  other  way  of  life  for  you.     There's  a  guinea.' 

Here  was  one  of  the  many,  many  instances  of  his  active 
benevolence.  At  the  same  time,  the  slow  and  sonorous 
solemnity  with  which,  while  he  bent  himself  down,  he  ad- 
dressed a  little  thick  short-legged  boy,  contrasted  with  the 
boy's  aukwardness  and  awe,  could  not  but  excite  some  ludi- 
crous emotions  ^ 

'  In  New  Street,  near  Gough  Square,  in  Fleet  Street,  whither  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1770,  the  King's  printing-house  was  removed  from  what  is  still 
called  Printing  House  Square.  Croker.  Dr.  Spottiswoode,  the  late 
President  of  the  Royal  Society,  was  the  great-grandson  of  Mr.  Strahan. 

^  S&e.  post,  under  March  30, 1783. 

^  Johnson  wrote  to  Dr.  Taylor  on  April  8  of  this  year : — '  I  have 
placed  young  Davenport  in  the  greatest  printing  house  in  London, 
and  hear  no  complaint  of  him  but  want  of  size,  which  will  not  hinder 
him  much.  He  may  when  he  is  a  journeyman  always  get  a  guinea 
a  week.'  Notes  and  Queries,  6th  S.,  v.  422.  Mr.  Jewitt  in  the  Gent. 
Mag.  for  Dec.  1878,  gives  an  account  of  this  lad.  He  was  the  orphan 
son  of  a  clergyman,  a  friend  of  the  Rev.  W.  Langley,  Master  of  Ash- 
bourne School  (see  post,  Sept.  14,  1777).  Mr.  Langley  asked  John- 
son's help  '  in  procuring  him  a  place  in  some  eminent  printing  office.' 
Davenport  wrote  to  Mr.  Langley  nearly  eight  years  later: — 'Accord- 
ing to  your  desire,  I  consulted  Dr.  Johnson  about  my  future  employ- 
ment in  life,  and  he  very  laconically  told  me  "  to  work  hard  at  my 
trade,  as  others  had  done  before  me."     I  told  him  my  size  and  want 

I  met 


Aetat.66.]  Mrs.  Abiiigton  s  benefit.  371 

I  met  him  at  Drury-lane  play-house  in  the  evening.  Sir 
Joshua  Reynolds,  at  Mrs.  Abington's  request,  had  promised 
to  bring  a  body  of  wits  to  her  benefit ;  and  having  secured 
forty  places  in  the  front  boxes,  had  done  me  the  honour  to 
put  me  in  the  group.  Johnson  sat  on  the  seat  directly  be- 
hind me';  and  as  he  could  neither  see  nor  hear  at  such  a 
distance  from  the  stage,  he  was  wrapped  up  in  grave  abstrac- 
tion, and  seemed  quite  a  cloud,  amidst  all  the  sunshine  of 
glitter  and  gaiety".     I  wondered  at  his  patience  in  sitting 

of  strength  prevented  me  from  getting  so  much  money  as  other  men. 
"Then,"  replied  he,  "you  must  get  as  much  as  you  can." '  The  boy 
was  nearly  sixteen  when  he  was  apprenticed,  and  had  learnt  enough 
Latin  to  quote  Virgil,  so  that  there  was  nothing  in  Johnson's  speech 
beyond  his  understanding. 

^  Seven  years  afterwards,  Johnson  described  this  evening.  Miss 
Monckton  had  told  him  that  he  must  see  Mrs.  Siddons.  '  Well, 
Madam,'  he  answered, '  if  you  desire  it,  I  will  go.  See  her  I  shall  not, 
nor  hear  her;  but  I'll  go,  and  that  will  do.  The  last  time  I  was  at  a 
play,  I  was  ordered  there  by  Mrs.  Abington,  or  Mrs.  Somebody,  I  do 
not  well  remember  who;  but  I  placed  myself  in  the  middle  of  the 
first  row  of  the  front  boxes,  to  show  that  when  I  was  called  I  came.' 
Mme.  D'Arblay's  Diary,  ii.  199.  At  Fontainebleau  he  went  to  a 
comedy  {post,  Oct.  19,  i77S)>  so  that  it  was  not  'the  last  time  he  was 
at  a  play.' 

*  'One  evening  in  the  oratorio  season  of  1771,'  writes  Mrs.  Piozzi 
{Anec.  72),  '  Mr.  Johnson  went  with  me  to  Covent  Garden  theatre. 
He  sat  surprisingly  quiet,  and  I  flattered  myself  that  he  was  listening 
to  the  music.  When  we  were  got  home  he  repeated  these  verses, 
which  he  said  he  had  made  at  the  oratorio : — 

"  In  Theatro,  March  8,  1771. 
*'  Tertii  verso  quater  orbe  lustri, 
Quid  theatrales  tibi,  Crispe,  pompae  } 
yuam  decet  canos  male  literates 
Sera  voluptas ! 
Tene  mulceri  fidibus  canoris.' 
Tene  cantorum  modulis  stupere  ? 
Tene  per  pictas,  oculo  elegante, 

Currere  formas  } 
Inter  aequales,  sine  fclle  liber, 
Codices  veri  studiosus  inter 
Rectius  vives.     Sua  quisque  carpat 
Gaudia  gratus. 

out 


372  Garric/cs  prologues.  [a.d.1775. 

out  a  play  of  five  acts,  and  a  farce  of  two.  He  said  very 
little;  but  after  the  prologue  to  Boji  Ton''  had  been  spoken, 
which  he  could  hear  pretty  well  from  the  more  slow  and  dis- 
tinct utterance,  he  talked  of  prologue-writing,  and  observed, 
'  Dryden  has  written  prologues  superiour  to  any  that  David 
Garrick  has  written ;  but  David  Garrick  has  written  more 
good  prologues  than  Dryden  has  done.  It  is  wonderful  that 
he  has  been  able  to  write  such  variety  of  them  '■'.' 

At  Mr.  Beauclerk's,  where  I  supped,  was  Mr.  Garrick, 
whom  I  made  happy  with  Johnson's  praise  of  his  prologues  ; 
and  I  suppose,  in  gratitude  to  him,  he  took  up  one  of  his 
favourite  topicks,  the  nationality  of  the  Scotch,  which  he 
maintained  in  a  pleasant  manner,  with  the  aid  of  a  little  po- 
etical fiction.  '  Come,  come,  don't  deny  it :  they  are  really 
national.     Why,  now,  the  Adams ^  are   as   liberal-minded 

Lusibus  gaudet  puer  otiosis, 
Luxus  oblectat  juvenem  theatri, 
At  seni  fluxo  sapienter  uti 

Tempore  restat." ' 

{Works,  I.  1 66.) 
*  Boil  Ton,  or  High  Life  above  Stairs,  by  Garrick.     He  made  King 
the  comedian  a  present  of  this  farce,  and  it  was  acted  for  the  first 
time  on  his  benefit — a  little  earlier  in  the  month.     Murphy's  Garrick, 

PP-  330.  332. 

-  'August,  1778.  An  epilogue  of  Mr.  Garrick's  to  Bojidiica  was 
mentioned,  and  Dr.  Johnson  said  it  was  a  miserable  performance  : — 
"  I  don't  know,"  he  said,  "  what  is  the  matter  with  David  ;  I  am  afraid 
he  is  grown  superannuated,  for  his  prologues  and  epilogues  used  to 
be  incomparable."  '     Mme.  D'Arblay's  Diary,  i.  64. 

^  '  Scottish  brethren  and  architects,  who  had  bought  Durham  Yard, 
and  erected  a  large  pile  of  buildings  under  the  affected  name  of  the 
Adelphi.  These  men,  of  great  taste  in  their  profession,  were  attached 
particularly  to  Lord  Bute  and  Lord  Mansfield,  and  thus  by  public  and 
private  nationality  zealous  politicians.'  Walpole's  Memoirs  of  the 
Reign  of  Geoi'ge  III,  iv.  173.  Hume  wrote  to  Adam  Smith  in  June, 
1772,  at  a  time  where  there  was  '  a  universal  loss  of  credit ' : — '  Of  all 
the  sufferers,  I  am  the  most  concerned  for  the  Adams.  But  their 
undertakings  were  so  vast,  that  nothing  could  support  them.  They 
must  dismiss  3000  workmen,  who,  comprehending  the  materials,  must 
have  expended  above  ^100,000  a  year.  To  me  the  scheme  of  the 
Adelphi  always  appeared  so  imprudent,  that  my  wonder  is  how  they 

men 


Aetat.  66.]       Garvick's  mimickry  of  Johnson.  373 

men  as  any  in  the  world  :  but,  I  don't  know  how  it  is,  all 
their  workmen  are  Scotch.  You  are,  to  be  sure,  wonder- 
fully free  from  that  nationality :  but  so  it  happens,  that 
you  employ  the  only  Scotch  shoe-black  in  London.'  He 
imitated  the  manner  of  his  old  master  with  ludicrous  exag- 
geration ;  repeating,  with  pauses  and  half-whistlings  inter- 
jected, 

'  Os  homini  sublime  dedit, — cceliimqtie  hccri 
Jus  sit, — ct  credos  ad  sidera — toll  ere  viiltus '; ' 

looking  downwards  all  the  time,  and,  while  pronouncing  the 
four  last  words,  absolutely  touching  the  ground  with  a  kind 
of  contorted  gesticulation. 

Garrick,  however,  when  he  pleased,  could  imitate  Johnson 
ver}^  exactly";  for  that  great  actor,  with  his  distinguished 
powers  of  expression  which  were  so  universally  admired, 
possessed  also  an  admirable  talent  of  mimickry.  He  was 
always  jealous  that  Johnson  spoke  lightly  of  him'.  I  recol- 
lect his  exhibiting  him  to  me  one  day,  as  if  saying,  '  Davy 
has  some  convivial  pleasantry  about  him,  but  'tis  a  futile 
fellow ' ;'  which  he  uttered  perfectly  with  the  tone  and  air 
of  Johnson. 

I  cannot  too  frequently  request  of  my  readers,  while  they 
peruse  my  account  of  Johnson's  conversation,  to  endeavour 
to  keep  in  mind  his  deliberate  and  strong  utterance.     His 

could  have  gone  on  so  long.'  J.  H.  Burton's  Hii}iic,'\\.  \6o.  Garrick 
lived  in  the  Adelphi. 

'  '  Man  looks  aloft,  and  with  erected  eyes, 

Beholds  his  own  hereditary  skies.' 

Dryden,  Ovid,  Meta.  i.  85. 

'  Hannah  More  {Memoirs,  i.  213)  says  that  she  was  made  'the  um- 
pire in  a  trial  of  skill  between  Garrick  and  Boswell,  which  could  most 
nearly  imitate  Dr.  Johnson's  manner.  I  remember  I  gave  it  for  Bos- 
well in  familiar  conversation,  and  for  Garrick  in  reciting  poetry.' 

^  'Gesticular  mimicry  and  buffoonery  Johnson  hated,  and  would 
often  huff  Garrick  for  exercising  it  in  his  presence.'  Hawkins's /t;//;/- 
son,  p.  386. 

*  In  the  first  two  editions  Johnson  is  represented  as  only  saying, 
'  Davy  is  futile.' 

mode 


374  Gray  'a  dull  fellow!  [a.d.  1775. 

mode  of  speaking  was  indeed  very  impressive ' ;  and  I  wish 
it  could  be  preserved  as  musick  is  written,  according  to  the 
very  ingenious  method  of  Mr.  Steele  °,  who  has  shown  how 
the  recitation  of  Mr.  Garrick,  and  other  eminent  speakers, 
might  be  transmitted  to  posterity  in  score"". 

Next  day  I  dined  with  Johnson  at  Mr.  Thrale's.  He  at- 
tacked Gray,  calling  him  '  a  dull  fellow.'  BOSWELL.  '  I  un- 
derstand he  was  reserved,  and  might  appear  dull  in  company  ; 
but  surely  he  was  not  dull  in  poetry.'  Johnson.  '  Sir,  he 
was  dull  in  company,  dull  in  his  closet,  dull  every  where*. 


'  My  noble  friend  Lord  Pembroke  said  once  to  me  at  Wilton,  with 
a  happy  pleasantry  and  some  truth,  that '  Dr.  Johnson's  sayings  would 
not  appear  so  extraordinary,  were  it  not  for  his  bow-wow  way.'  The 
sayings  themselves  are  generally  of  sterling  merit ;  but,  doubtless,  his 
matmcr  was  an  addition  to  their  effect ;  and  therefore  should  be 
attended  to  as  much  as  may  be.  It  is  necessary  however,  to  guard 
those  who  were  not  acquainted  with  him,  against  overcharged  imita- 
tions or  caricatures  of  his  manner,  which  are  frequently  attempted, 
and  many  of  which  are  second-hand  copies  from  the  late  Mr.  Hen- 
derson the  actor,  who,  though  a  good  mimick  of  some  persons,  did 
not  represent  Johnson  correctly.     Boswell. 

^  See  '  Prosodia  Rattonalis ;  or,  an  Essay  towards  establishing  the 
Melody  and  Measure  of  Speech,  to  be  expressed  and  perpetuated  by 
peculiar  Symbols.'     London,  1779.     Boswell. 

^  I  use  the  phrase  m  score,  as  Dr.  Johnson  has  explained  it  in  his 
Dictionary  : — '  A  song  zn  Score,  the  words  with  the  musical  notes  of 
a  song  annexed.'  But  I  understand  that  in  scientifick  propriety  it 
means  all  the  parts  of  a  musical  composition  noted  down  in  the  char- 
acters by  which  it  is  exhibited  to  the  eye  of  the  skilful.  Boswell. 
It  was  dcclainatz'on  that  Steele  pretended  to  reduce  to  notation  by 
new  characters.  This  he  called  the  melody  of  speech,  not  the  har- 
mony, which  the  term  in  score  implies.     Burney. 

■*  Johnson,  in  his  Lzfe  of  Gray  {Works,  viii.  481),  spoke  better  of 
him.  '  What  has  occurred  to  me  from  the  slight  inspection  of  his 
Letters,  in  which  my  undertaking  has  engaged  me,  is,  that  his  mind 
had  a  large  grasp  ;  that  his  curiosity  was  unlimited,  and  his  judgment 
cultivated.'  Horace  Walpole  {Letters,  ii.  128)  allowed  that  he  was  bad 
company.  'Sept.  3,  1748.  I  agree  with  you  most  absolutely  in  your 
opinion  about  Gray ;  he  is  the  worst  company  in  the  world.  From 
a  melancholy  turn,  from  Hving  reclusely,  and  from  a  little  too  much 
dignity,  he  never  converses  easily;  all  his  words  are  measured  and 

He 


Aetat.66.]  Grays  Elegy.  375 

He  was  dull  in  a  new  way,  and  that  made  many  people 
think  him  great.  He  was  a  mechanical  poet.'  He  then 
repeated  some  ludicrous  lines,  which  have  escaped  my  mem- 
ory, and  said,  '  Is  not  that  GREAT,  like  his  Odes?'  Mrs. 
Thrale  maintained  that  his  Odes  were  melodious ;  upon 
which  he  exclaimed, 

'Weave  the  warp,  and  weave  the  woof;' — 

I  added,  in  a  solemn  tone, 

'The  winding-sheet  of  Edward's  race.' 

'  TJicre  is  a  good  line.'  '  Ay,  (said  he,)  and  the  next  line  is 
a  good  one,'  (pronouncing  it  contemptuously ;) 

'  Give  ample  verge  and  room  enough '.' — 

'  No,  Sir,  there  are  but  two  good"*  stanzas  in  Gray's  poetry, 
which  are  in  his  Elegy  in  a  Country  Chiirch-yard'  He  then 
repeated  the  stanza, 

'  For  who  to  dumb  forgetfulness  a  prey,'  &c, 

mistaking  one  word;  for  instead  oi precincts  he  said  confines. 
He  added, '  The  other  stanza  I  forget'.' 

chosen,  and  formed  into  sentences;  his  writings  are  admirable;  he 
himself  is  not  agreeable.' 

'  In  the  original, '  Give  ample  room  and  verge  enough.'  In  the 
Life  of  Gray  {Works,  \\\\.  \Z6)  Johnson  says  that  the  slaughtered 
bards  '  are  called  upon  to  "  Weave  the  warp,  and  weave  the  woof," 
perhaps  with  no  great  propriety ;  for  it  is  by  crossing  the  woof  with 
the  warp  that  men  weave  the  web  or  piece ;  and  the  first  line  was 
dearly  bought  by  the  admission  of  its  wretched  correspondent,  "  Give 
ample  room  and  verge  enough."  He  has,  however,  no  other  line  as 
bad.'     See  atitc,  i.  466. 

^  This  word,  which  is  in  the  first  edition,  is  not  in  the  second  or  third. 

^  '  The  Cfmrch-yard  abounds  with  unages  which  find  a  mirror  in 
every  mind,  and  with  sentiments  to  which  every  bosom  returns  an 
echo.  The  four  stanzas,  beginning  "  Yet  even  these  bones,"  are  to 
me  original.  I  have  never  seen  the  notions  in  any  other  place ;  yet 
he  that  reads  them  here  persuades  himself  that  he  has  always  felt 
them.  Had  Gray  written  often  thus,  it  had  been  vain  to  blame,  and 
useless  to  praise  him.'  Works,  viii.  487.  Goldsmith,  in  his  Life  of 
Parnell  {Misc.  Works,  iv.  25),  thus  seems  to  sneer  at  The  Elegy : — '  The 

A  young 


37^  Mean  Marriages.  [a.d.  1775. 

A  young  lady'  who  had  married  a  man  much  her  inferi- 
our  in  rank  being  mentioned,  a  question  arose  how  a  wom- 
an's relations  should  behave  to  her  in  such  a  situation;  and, 
while  I  recapitulate  the  debate,  and  recollect  what  has  since 
happened',  I  cannot  but  be  struck  in  a  manner  that  delicacy 
forbids  me  to  express.  While  I  contended  that  she  ought 
to  be  treated  with  an  inflexible  steadiness  of  displeasure, 
Mrs.  Thrale  was  all  for  mildness  and  forgiveness,  and,  ac- 
cording to  the  vulgar  phrase,  '  making  the  best  of  a  bad  bar- 
gain.' Johnson.  '  Madam,  we  must  distinguish.  Were  I 
a  man  of  rank,  I  would  not  let  a  daughter  starve  who  had 
made  a  mean  marriage  ;  but  having  voluntarily  degraded 
herself  from  the  station  which  she  was  originally  entitled  to 
hold,  I  would  support  her  only  in  that  which  she  herself  had 
chosen  ;  and  would  not  put  her  on  a  level  with  my  other 
daughters.  You  are  to  consider.  Madam,  that  it  is  our  duty 
to  maintain  the  subordination  of  civilized  society;  and  when 
there  is  a  gross  and  shameful  deviation  from  rank,  it  should 
be  punished  so  as  to  deter  others  from  the  same  perversion.' 

After  frequently  considering  this  subject,  I  am  more  and 
more  confirmed  in  what  I  then  meant  to  express,  and  which 
was  sanctioned  by  the  authority,  and  illustrated  by  the  wis- 
dom, of  Johnson ;  and  I  think  it  of  the  utmost  consequence 
to  the  happiness  of  Society,  to  which  subordination  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  ^  It  is  weak,  and  contemptible,  and  un- 
worthy, in  a  parent  to  relax  in  such  a  case.  It  is  sacrificing 
general  advantage  to  private  feelings.  And  let  it  be  con- 
sidered, that  the  claim  of  a  daughter  who  has  acted  thus,  to 
be  restored  to  her  former  situation,  is  either  fantastical  or 

Night  Piece  on  death  deserves  every  praise,  and,  I  should  suppose, 
with  very  little  amendment,  might  be  made  to  surpass  all  those  night 
pieces  and  church-yard  scenes  that  have  since  appeared.' 

'  Mr.  Croker  says, '  no  doubt  Lady  Susan  Fox  who,  in  1773,  married 
Air.  William  O'Brien,  an  actor.'  It  was  in  1764  that  she  was  mar- 
ried, so  that  it  is  not  likely  that  she  was  the  subject  of  this  talk.  See 
Horace  Walpole's  Letters,  iv.  221. 

"^  Mrs.  Thrale's  marriage  with  Mr.  Piozzi. 

^  See  a7ite,  i.  472. 

unjust. 


Aetat.  66.]        Lord  Chesterfield's  Letters.  377 

unjust.  If  there  be  no  value  in  the  distinction  of  rank,  what 
does  she  suffer  by  being  kept  in  the  situation  to  which  she 
has  descended  ?  If  there  be  a  vahie  in  that  distinction,  it 
ought  to  be  steadily  maintained.  If  indulgence  be  shewn 
to  such  conduct,  and  the  offenders  know  that  in  a  longer  or 
shorter  time  they  shall  be  received  as  well  as  if  they  had  not 
contaminated  their  blood  by  a  base  alliance,  the  great  check 
upon  that  inordinate  caprice  which  generally  occasions  low 
marriages  will  be  removed,  and  the  fair  and  comfortable  or- 
der of  improved  life  will  be  miserably  disturbed'. 

Lord  Chesterfield's  Letters  being  mentioned,  Johnson  said, 
'  It  was  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  they  had  so  great  a  sale, 
considering  that  they  were  the  letters  of  a  statesman,  a  wit, 
one  who  had  been  so  much  in  the  mouths  of  mankind,  one 
long  accustomed  virihn  volitarc per  ora'! 

On  Friday,  March  31,1  supped  with  him  and  some  friends 
at  a  tavern  \     One  of  the  company "  attempted,  with  too 

*  Boswell  was  of  the  same  way  of  thinking  as  Squire  Western,  who 
'  did  indeed  consider  a  parity  of  fortune  and  circumstances  to  be  phys- 
ically as  necessary  an  ingredient  in  marriage  as  difference  of  sexes,  or 
any  other  essential ;  and  had  no  more  apprehension  of  his  daughter 
falling  in  love  with  a  poor  man  than  with  any  animal  of  a  different 
species.'     To7n  Jones,  bk.  vi.  ch.  ix. 

^  '  Temptanda  via  est,  qua  me  quoque  possim 

ToUere  humo  victorque  virum  volitare  per  ora.' 
'  New  ways  I  must  attempt,  my  grovelling  name 
To  raise  aloft,  and  wing  my  flight  to  fame.' 
Dryden,  Virgil,  Gcorg.  iii.  9.     '  Chesterfield  was  at  once  the  most  dis- 
tinguished orator  in  the  Upper  House,  and  the  undisputed  sovereign 
of  wit  and  fashion.    He  held  this  eminence  for  about  forty  years.    At 
last  it  became  the  regular  custom  of  the  higher  circles  to  laugh  when- 
ever he  opened  his  mouth,  without  waiting  for  his  bon  mot.     He  used 
to  sit  at  White's,  with  a  circle  of  young  men  of  rank  around  him, 
applauding  every  syllabic  that  he  uttered.'     Macaulay's  Life,  i.  325. 

=  With  the  Literary  Club,  as  is  shewn  by  Roswell's  letter  of  April 
4,  1775,  in  which  he  says :— '  I  dine  on  Friday  at  the  Turk's  Head, 
Gerrard  Street,  with  our  Club,  who  now  dine  once  a  month,  and  sup 
every  Friday.'  Letters  of  Boswell,  p.  186.  The  meeting  of  Friday, 
March  24,  is  described  ante,  ii.  363,  and  that  of  April  l,post,  ii.  395 

*  Very  likely  Boswell  (ante,  ii.  96,  note  4). 

much 


378  The  mystery  of  the  Seville  oranges,    [a.d.  1775. 

much  forwardness,  to  rally  him  on  his  late  appearance  at  the 
theatre ;  but  had  reason  to  repent  of  his  temerity.  '  Why, 
Sir,  did  you  go  to  Mrs.  Abington's  benefit?  Did  you  see?' 
Johnson.  '  No,  Sir.'  '  Did  you  hear?'  JOHNSON.  '  No,  Sir.' 
'  Why  then,  Sir,  did  you  go  ?'  JOHNSON.  '  Because,  Sir,  she 
is  a  favourite  of  the  publick;  and  when  the  publick  cares 
the  thousandth  part  for  you  that  it  does  for  her,  I  will  go  to 
your  benefit  too '.' 

Next  morning  I  won  a  small  bet  from  Lady  Diana  Beau- 
clerk,  by  asking  him  as  to  one  of  his  particularities,  which 
her  Ladyship  laid  I  durst  not  do.  It  seems  he  had  been 
frequently  observed  at  the  Club  to  put  into  his  pocket  the 
Seville  oranges,  after  he  had  squeezed  the  juice  of  thefn  into 
the  drink  which  he  made  for  himself.  Beauclerk  and  Gar- 
rick  talked  of  it  to  me,  and  seemed  to  think  that  he  had  a 
strange  unwillingness  to  be  discovered.  We  could  not  di- 
vine what  he  did  with  them  ;  and  this  was  the  bold  question 
to  be  put.  I  saw  on  his  table  the  spoils  of  the  preceding 
night,  some  fresh  peels  nicely  scraped  and  cut  into  pieces. 
'  O,  Sir,  (said  I,)  I  now  partly  see  what  you  do  with  the 
squeezed  oranges  which  you  put  into  your  pocket  at  the 
Club.'  Johnson.  'I  have  a  great  love  for  them.'  Bos- 
WELL.  *  And  pray,  Sir,  what  do  you  do  with  them  ?  You 
scrape  them,  it  seems,  very  neatly,  and  what  next?'  JOHN- 
SON. 'Let  them  dry,  Sir.'  Boswell.  'And  what  next?' 
Johnson.  '  Nay,  Sir,  you  shall  know  their  fate  no  further.' 
BosWELL.  'Then  the  world  must  be  left  in  the  dark.  It 
must  be  said,  (assuming  a  mock  solemnity,)  he  scraped  them, 
and  let  them  dry,  but  what  he  did  with  them  next,  he  never 
could  be  prevailed  upon  to  tell.'  JOHNSON.  '  Nay,  Sir,  you 
should  say  it  more  emphatically  : — he  could  not  be  prevailed 
upon,  even  by  his  dearest  friends,  to  tell  ^' 

'  In  the  Garrick  Corres.  (ii.  141)  is  a  letter  dated  March  4,  1776, 
from  (to  use  Garrick's  own  words)  'that  worst  of  bad  women,  Mrs. 
Abington,  to  ask  my  playing  for  her  benefit.'  It  is  endorsed  by 
Garrick : — '  A  copy  of  Mother  Abington's  Letter  about  leaving  the 
stage.' 

^  Twenty  years  earlier  he  had  recommended  to  Miss  Boothby  as  a 

He 


Aetat.66.]    The  Chancellor  of  Oxford's  Letter,  379 

He  had  this  morning  received  his  Diploma  as  Doctor  of 
Laws  from  the  University  of  Oxford.  He  did  not  vaunt  of 
his  new  dignity,  but  I  understood  he  was  highly  pleased 
with  it.  I  shall  here  insert  the  progress  and  completion  of 
that  hieh  academical  honour,  in  the  same  manner  as  I  have 
traced  his  obtaining  that  of  Master  of  Arts. 

To  the  Reverend  Dr.  Fothergill,  Vice-CJuvicellor  of  the  University  of 
Oxford,  to  be  comnmnicated  to  the  Heads  of  Houses,  and  proposed  in 
Convocation. 

'  Mr.  Vice-Chancellor  and  Gentlemen  ', 

'  The  honour  of  the  degree  of  M. A.  by  diploma,  formerly  con- 
ferred upon  Mr.  Samuel  Johnson,  in  consequence  of  his  having 
eminently  distinguished  himself  by  the  publication  of  a  series  of 
Essays,  excellently  calculated  to  form  the  manners  of  the  people, 
and  in  which  the  cause  of  religion  and  morality  has  been  main- 
tained and  recommended  by  the  strongest  powers  of  argument  and 
elegance  of  language,  reflected  an  equal  degree  of  lustre  upon  the 
University  itself. 

'The  many  learned  labours  which  have  since  that  time  employed 
the  attention  and  displayed  the  abilities  of  that  great  man,  so  much 
to  the  advancement  of  literature  and  the  benefit  of  the  commu- 
nity, render  him  worthy  of  more  distinguished  honours  in  the 
Republick  of  letters :  and  I  persuade  myself,  that  I  shall  act 
agreeably  to  the  sentiments  of  the  whole  University,  in  desiring 
that  it  may  be  proposed  in  Convocation  to  confer  on  him  the 
degree  of  Doctor  in  Civil  Law  by  diploma,  to  which  I  readily  give 
my  consent ;  and  am, 

'  Mr.  Vice-Chancellor  and  Gentlemen, 

'  Your  affectionate  friend  and  servant, 

'  North  ^' 

'  Downing-street, 
March  23, 1775.' 

remedy  for  indigestion  dried  orange-peel  finely  powdered,  taken  in 
a  glass  of  hot  red  port.  '  I  would  not,'  he  adds, '  have  you  offer  it 
to  the  Doctor  as  my  medicine.  Physicians  do  not  love  intruders.' 
Piozzi  Letters,  ii.  397.     See  post,  April  18,  1783. 

'  The  misprint  of  Chancellor  for  Gentlemen  is  found  in  both  the 
second  and  third  editions.     It  is  not  in  the  first. 

"  Extracted  from  the  Convocation  Register,  Oxford.     Boswell. 

Diploma. 


380  Johnsons  Diploma  of  LL.D.         [a.d.  1775. 

Diploma. 

'  CANCELLARIUS,  Magistri,  et  Scholares  Universitatis  Oxoniensis 
omnibus  ad  quos  prcscfifes  Litcrcs  pervenerint,  salutem  hi  Domino 
Sempitcrnam. 

'  SciATis,  rirnm  i/lustran,  Samuelem  Johnson,  /;/  omni  Jnimanio- 
rum  litcrarum  genere  cruditum^  Ofuniumque  scicntiarum  comprchcnsioiie 
felicissitniun,  scriptis  suis,  ad  popularium  mores  fonnandos  snmma 
vcrborum  dcganticL  ac  sentefitiamm  gravitate  compositis,  ita  olim  incla- 
ruisse,  tit  dignus  videretur  cui  ab  Acadejuid,  snd  eximia  qiiccdam  laudis 
pra'mia  deferentiir  [deferrentur]  qiiique  [/«]  venerabilem  Magistrorum 
Ordinem  siimmA  cum  dignifate  cooptaretur  : 

'  C7c?n  7^cro  cundcm  clarissimum  7'irum  tot postca  tantiquc  laborcs,  in 
patria  pra;scrtim  lingud  ornauda  ct  stabilienda  feliciter  impoisi^  ita  in- 
signiverint,  tit  in  Literarnni  Republic^,  Princeps  jam  et  Primarius 
jure  habeatur ;  Nos  Cancellarius,  Magistri,  et  Scholares  Univer- 
sitatis Oxoniensis,  qiib  talis  viri  merita  pari  honoris  remuneratione 
exccqucntur,  et  pcrpetuum  sua;  simtil  laudis,  nostraque  erga  litcras 
propensissimcz  voluntatis  extet  monumetttum,  in  solenni  Convocatione 
Doctoriim  et  Magistrorum  Regentium,  et  non  Regentium,  pradictimi 
Samuelem  Johnson  Doctorem  in  yure  Civili  renunciavimus  et  con- 
stituitntis,  cumqiie  virtiite prcesentis  Diplomatis  singulis  jtiribus,  privi- 
legiis  et  honoribus,  ad  istum  gradum  quaquA  pcrtincntibus,  frui  et 
gaudere  jiissimus.  In  ciijus  rei  testimonium  commune  Universitatis 
Oxoniensis  sigillum  prcesentibus  apponifccimus. 

'  Datii7n  in  Dotno  nostrcz  Convocationis  die  tricesimo  Mensis  Martii, 
Anno  Dotnijii  Millesifno  septingentesimo,  septuagesimo  quinto  \' 

'  The  original  is  in  my  possession.  He  shewed  me  the  Diploma, 
and  allowed  me  to  read  it,  but  would  not  consent  to  my  taking  a  copy 
of  it,  fearing  perhaps  that  I  should  blaze  it  abroad  in  his  life-time. 
His  objection  to  this  appears  from  his  99th  letter  to  Mrs.  Thrale, 
whom  in  that  letter  he  thus  scolds  for  the  grossness  of  her  flattery  of 
him  : — '  The  other  Oxford  news  is,  that  they  have  sent  me  a  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Laws,  with  such  praises  in  the  Diploma  as  perhaps  ought 
to  make  me  ashamed :  they  are  very  like  your  praises.  I  wonder 
whether  I  shall  ever  shew  it  \tJicm  in  the  original]  to  you.' 

It  is  remarkable  that  he  never,  so  far  as  I  know,  assumed  his  title  of 
Doctor,  but  called  himself  Mr.  Johnson,  as  appears  from  many  of  his 
cards  or  notes  to  myself ;  and  I  have  seen  many  from  him  to  other 
persons,  in  which  he  uniformly  takes  that  designation.  I  once  ob- 
served on  his  table  a  letter  directed  to  him  with  the  addition  of  Es- 
quire, and  objected  to  it  as  being  a  designation  inferiour  to  that  of 

'  Viro 


Aetat.  66.]   Jo/msoiis  Letter  to  the  Vice-Chancellor.    381 

'■Viro  Revcrmdo  Thom.e  Fothergill,  S.T.F.  Universitatis  Oxo- 
fiicJisis  Vice-  Canccllario. 

'  S.  P.  D. 

'Sam.  Johnson. 

*■  MULTIS  mm  est  opus^  ut  tcsthmmiuvi  quo,  te prccsidc,  Oxonienscs 
nomen  vieiun  postcris  cojufucnddnmt,  quali  animo  acceperhn  compertiiin 
faciam.  Nemo  sibi  placens  iion  hctatur ' ;  nemo  sibi  non  placet,  qui 
vobis,  literaru77i  arbitris,placere  potuit.  Hoc  tamen  habet  incommodi 
tantum  beneficium,  quod  mihi  nu7iquam  posthac  si?ie  vestrce  fanuz  dctri- 
mento  vel  labi  liceat  vel  cessare  ;  sejnperque  sit  tijncndu77i,  7ic  quod  mihi 
ta77i  exi77iice  laudi  est,  vobis  aliquaudo  fiat  opprob7-io.      Vale'.' 

'7  Id.  Apr.,  177s: 

He  revised  some  sheets  of  Lord  Hailes's  Annals  of  Scot- 
lafid,  and  wrote  a  few  notes  on  the  margin  with  red  ink, 
which  he  bade  me  tell  his  Lordship  did  not  sink  into  the 
paper,  and  might  be  wiped  off  with  a  wet  sponge,  so  that 
he  did  not  spoil  his  manuscript.  I  observed  to  him  that 
there  were  very  few  of  his  friends  so  accurate  as  that  I 
could  venture  to  put  down  in  writing  what  they  told  me 
as  his  sayings.  JOHNSON.  '  Why  should  you  write  down 
my  sayings?'  BOSWELL.  'I  write  them  when  they  are 
good.'  Johnson.  '  Nay,  you  may  as  well  write  down 
the  sayings  of  any  one  else  that  are  good.'  But  ivJicrc, 
I  might  with  great  propriety  have  added,  can  I  find  such? 

I  visited  him  by  appointment  in  the  evening,  and  wc 
drank  tea  with  Mrs.  Williams.  He  told  me  that  he  had 
been  in  the  company  of  a  gentleman^  whose  extraordinary 

Doctor ;  but  he  checked  me,  and  seemed  pleased  with  it,  because,  as  I 
conjectured,  he  liked  to  be  sometimes  taken  out  of  the  class  of  liter- 
ary men,  and  to  be  m&rcXy  gc7tteel, — tm  ge7itilhoi)wic  co7/wie  U7i  autre. 
BoswELL.  See  post,  March  30,  1 781,  where  Johnson  applies  the  title 
to  himself  in  speaking,  and  April  13,  1784,  where  he  does  in  writing, 
and  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  15,  1773,  note. 

>  'To  make  a  man  pleased  with  himself,  let  me  tell  you,  is  doing  a 
very  great  thing.'     See  post,  April  28,  177S. 

*  '  The  original  is  in  the  hands  of  Dr.  Fothergill,  then  Vice-Chancel- 
lor, who  made  this  transcript.'     T.  Warton.— Boswell. 

'  Bruce,  the  Abyssinian  traveller,  as  is  shewn  by  Piozzi  Letters,  i.  213. 

travels 


382  Colman  and  Lloyd's  Odes.  [a.d.  1775. 

travels  had  been  much  the  subject  of  conversation.  But 
I  found  that  he  had  not  hstened  to  him  with  that  full  con- 
fidence, without  which  there  is  little  satisfaction  in  the  so- 
ciety of  travellers.  I  was  curious  to  hear  what  opinion  so 
able  a  judge  as  Johnson  had  formed  of  his  abilities,  and  I 
asked  if  he  was  not  a  man  of  sense.  JOHNSON.  *  Why,  Sir, 
he  is  not  a  distinct  relater;  and  I  should  say,  he  is  neither 
abounding  nor  deficient  in  sense.  \  did  not  perceive  any 
superiority  of  understanding.'  BOSWELL.  '  But  will  you 
not  allow  him  a  nobleness  of  resolution,  in  penetrating  into 
distant  regions?'  JOHNSON.  'That,  Sir,  is  not  to  the  pres- 
ent purpose.  We  are  talking  of  his  sense.  A  fighting  cock 
has  a  nobleness  of  resolution.' 

Next  day,  Sunday,  April  2,  I  dined  with  him  at  Mr. 
Hoole's.  We  talked  of  Pope.  JOHNSON.  '  He  wrote  his 
Dunciad  for  fame.  That  was  his  primary  motive.  Had 
it  not  been  for  that,  the  dunces  might  have  railed  against 
him  till  they  were  weary,  without  his  troubling  himself 
about  them.  He  delighted  to  vex  them,  no  doubt ;  but  he 
had  more  delight  in  seeing  how  well  he  could  vex  them'.' 

The  Odes  to  Obscurity  and  Oblivion,  in  ridicule  of  '  cool 
Mason  and  warm  Gray^'  being  mentioned,  Johnson  said, 

'  '  That  the  design  [of  the  Duftcz'ad^  was  moral,  whatever  the  author 
might  tell  either  his  readers  or  himself,  I  am  not  convinced.  The  first 
motive  was  the  desire  of  revenging  the  contempt  with  which  Theo- 
bald had  treated  his  Shakespeare,  and  regaining  the  honour  which  he 
had  lost,  by  crushing  his  opponent.'  Johnson's  Works,  viii.  338. 
'  '  Daughter  of  Chaos  and  old  Night, 

Cimmerian  Muse,  all  hail ! 

That  wrapt  in  never-twinkling  gloom  canst  write, 
And  shadowest  meaning  with  thy  dusky  veil ! 
What  Poet  sings  and  strikes  the  strings.' 
It  was  the  mighty  Theban  spoke. 
He  from  the  ever-living  lyre 
With  magic  hand  elicits  fire. 
Heard  ye  the  din  of  modern  rhymers  bray.-* 
It  was  cool  M — n  ;  or  warm  G — y, 
Involv'd  in  tenfold  smoke.' 
Colman's  Prose  on  Several  Occasions,  ii.  273. 

'  They 


Aetat.  66.]  Masoiis  poetry.  383 

*  They  are  Colman's  best  things.'  Upon  its  being  observed 
that  it  was  believed  these  Odes  were  made  by  Colman  and 
Lloyd  jointly;  —  JOHNSON.  'Nay,  Sir,  how  can  two  peo- 
ple make  an  Ode?  Perhaps  one  made  one  of  them,  and 
one  the  other'.'  I  observed  that  two  people  had  made  a 
play,  and  quoted  the  anecdote  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher, 
who  were  brought  under  suspicion  of  treason,  because  while 
concerting  the  plan  of  a  tragedy  when  sitting  together  at  a 
tavern,  one  of  them  was  overheard  saying  to  the  other, '  I'll 
kill  the  King.'  JOHNSON.  '  The  first  of  these  Odes  is  the 
best :  but  they  are  both  good.  They  exposed  a  very  bad 
kind  of  writing.'  BOSWELL.  '  Surely,  Sir,  Mr.  Mason's  El- 
frida  is  a  fine  Poem :  at  least  you  will  allow  there  are  some 
good  passages  in  it.'  JOHNSON.  '  There  are  now  and  then 
some  good  imitations  of  Milton's  bad  manner.' 

I  often  wondered  at  his  low  estimation  of  the  writings  of 
Gray  and  Mason.  Of  Gray's  poetry  I  have  in  a  former  part 
of  this  work^  expressed  my  high  opinion;  and  for  that  of 
Mr.  Mason  I  have  ever  entertained  a  warm  admiration'. 
His  Elfrida  is  exquisite,  both  in  poetical  description  and 
moral  sentiment;    and  his   Caractacus  is  a  noble  drama \ 

*  '  These  Odes,'  writes  Colman, '  were  a  piece  of  boys'  play  with  my 
schoolfellow  Lloyd,  with  whom  they  were  written  in  concert.'  lb.  i. 
xi.  In  the  Coiinoissejir  {ante,  i.  487)  they  had  also  written  in  concert. 
'  Their  humour  and  their  talents  were  well  adapted  to  what  they  had 
undertaken ;  and  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  present  what  is  probably 
the  only  parallel  instance  of  literary  co-operation  so  complete,  that 
the  portions  written  by  the  respective  parties  are  undistinguishable.' 
Southey's  Cowpcr,  i.  47.  ^  Sec  anic,  i.  465. 

^  Boswell  writing  to  Temple  two  days  later,  recalled  the  time  '  when 
you  and  I  sat  up  all  night  at  Cambridge  and  read  Gray  with  a  noble 
enthusiasm ;  when  we  first  used  to  read  Mason's  Elfrida,  and  when 
we  talked  of  that  elegant  knot  of  worthies.  Gray,  Mason,  Walpolc,  &c.' 
Letters  of  Bosiucll,  p.  185. 

*  '  I  have  heard  Mr.  Johnson  relate  how  he  used  to  sit  in  some  cof- 
fee-house at  Oxford,  and  turn  M — 's  C-r-ct-u-s  into  ridicule  for  the 
diversion  of  himself  and  of  chance  comcrs-in.  "  The  Etf — da,"  says 
he, "  was  too  exquisitely  pretty ;  I  could  make  no  fun  out  of  that." ' 
Piozzi's  Ancc.  p.  37.  I  doubt  whether  Johnson  used  the  word  fun, 
which  he  describes  in  his  Dictionary  as  'a  low  cant  [slang]  word.' 

Nor 


384  Taxa  tion  no  Tyranny.  [a.d.  1775. 


Nor  can  I  omit  paying  my  tribute  of  praise  to  some  of.  his 
smaller  poems,  which  I  have  read  with  pleasure,  and  which 
no  criticism  shall  persuade  me  not  to  like.  If  I  wondered 
at  Johnson's  not  tasting  the  works  of  Mason  and  Gray, 
still  more  have  I  wondered  at  their  not  tasting  his  works ; 
that  they  should  be  insensible  to  his  energy  of  diction,  to 
his  splendour  of  images,  and  comprehension  of  thought. 
Tastes  may  differ  as  to  the  violin,  the  flute,  the  hautboy, 
in  short  all  the  lesser  instruments :  but  who  can  be  insensi- 
ble to  the  powerful  impressions  of  the  majestick  organ  ? 

His  Taxation  no  Tyranny  being  mentioned,  he  said,  '  I 
think  I  have  not  been  attacked  enough  for  it.  Attack  is 
the  re-action  ;  I  never  think  I  have  hit  hard,  unless  it  re- 
bounds'.' BOSWELL.  *I  don't  know.  Sir,  what  you  would 
be  at.  Five  or  six  shots  of  small  arms  in  every  news-paper, 
and  repeated  cannonading  in  pamphlets,  might,  I  think,  sat- 
isfy you".  But,  Sir,  you'll  never  make  out  this  match,  of 
which  we  have  talked,  with  a  certain  political  lady,  since 
you  are  so  severe  against  her  principles'.'  JOHNSON. 
'  Nay,  Sir,  I  have  the  better  chance  for  that.  She  is  like 
the  Amazons  of  old;  she  must  be  courted  by  the  sword. 
But  I  have  not  been  severe  upon  her.'  BoswELL.  'Yes, 
Sir,  you  have  made  her  ridiculous.'  JOHNSON.  '  That  was 
already  done.  Sir.  To  endeavour  to  make  her  ridiculous,  is 
like  blacking  the  chimney.' 

I  put  him  in  mind  that  the  landlord  at  Ellon ^  in  Scotland 

'  Seeposf,  March  26, 1779,  ^"d  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Oct.  i,  and  under 
Nov.  II,  1773.  According  to  Dr.  T.  Campbell  {Diary,  p.  36),  Johnson, 
on  March  16,  had  said  that  Taxation  no  TyraJiny  did  not  sell. 

"  Six  days  later  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Taylor  : — '  The  patriots  pelt  me  with 
answers.  Four  pamphlets,  I  think,  already,  besides  newspapers  and 
reviews,  have  been  discharged  against  me.  I  have  tried  to  read  two 
of  them,  but  did  not  go  through  them.'  iVofes  and  (2ucries,  6th  S., 
v.  422. 

*  '  Mrs.  Macaulay,'  says  Mr.  Croker,  who  quotes  Johnson's  Works, 
vi.  258,  where  she  is  described  as  '  a  female  patriot  bewailing  the  mis- 
eries of  her  friends  and  fellow-citizens.'     See  atite,  i.  518. 

*  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  24,  1773,  and  post,  Sept.  24,  1777,  for 
another  landlord's  account  of  Johnson. 

said, 


Aetat. G6.]  Lady  Millers  Vase.  385 

said,  that  he  heard  he  was  the  greatest  man  in  England, — 
next  to  Lord  Mansfield.  '  Ay,  Sir,  (said  he,)  the  exception 
defined  the  idea.     A  Scotchman  could  go  no  farther : 

"The  force  of  Nature  could  no  farther  go'.'" 

Lady  Miller's  collection  of  verses  by  fashionable  people, 
which  were  put  into  her  Vase  at  Batheaston  villa ^  near 
Bath,  in  competition  for  honorary  prizes,  being  mentioned, 
he  held  them  very  cheap:  'Bouts  rimes,  (said  he,)  is  a  mere 
conceit,  and  an  old  conceit  noiv ;  I  wonder  how  people  were 
persuaded  to  write  in  that  manner  for  this  lady\'  I  named 
a  gentleman  of  his  acquaintance  who  wrote  for  the  Vase. 
Johnson.  '  He  was  a  blockhead  for  his  pains.'  BOSWELL. 
'The  Duchess  of  Northumberland  wrote*.'     JOHNSON.  'Sir, 


'  From  Dryden's  lines  on  Milton. 

^  Horace  Walpole  wrote,  on  Jan.  15,  1775  {Letters,  \\.  171) : — 'They 
[the  Millers]  hold  a  Parnassus-fair  every  Thursday,  give  out  rhymes 
and  themes,  and  all  the  flux  of  quality  at  Bath  contend  for  the  prizes. 
A  Roman  Vase,  dressed  with  pink  ribands  and  myrtles,  receives  the 
poetry,  which  is  drawn  out  every  festival :  six  judges  of  these  Olym- 
pic games  retire  and  select  the  brightest  compositions,  which  the 
respective  successful  acknowledge,  kneel  to  Mrs.  Calliope  Miller,  kiss 
her  fair  hand,  and  are  crowned  by  it  with  myrtle,  with — I  don't  know 
what.' 

'  Miss  Burney  wrote,  in  1780: — '  Do  you  know  now  that,  notwith- 
standing Bath-Easton  is  so  much  laughed  at  in  London,  nothing  here 
is  more  tonish  than  to  visit  Lady  Miller.  She  is  a  round,  plump, 
coarse-looking  dame  of  about  forty,  and  while  all  her  aim  is  to  appear 
an  elegant  woman  of  fashion,  all  her  success  is  to  seem  an  ordinary 
woman  in  very  common  life,  with  fine  clothes  on.'  Mmc.  D'Arblay's 
Diary,  i.  364. 

*  'Yes,  on  my  faith,  there  arc  bouts -rimh  on  a  buttered  muffin, 
made  by  her  Grace  the  Duchess  of  Northumberland.'  Walpole's  Let- 
ter s,\\.  171.  'She  was,'  Walpole  writes, '  a  jovial  heap  of  contradic- 
tions. She  was  familiar  with  the  mob,  while  stifled  with  diamonds; 
and  yet  was  attentive  to  the  most  minute  privileges  of  her  rank,  while 
almost  shaking  hands  with  a  cobbler.'  Memoirs  of  the  Reig>i  of  George 
in,  i-  419-  Dr.  Percy  showed  her  Goldsmith's  ballad  of  Edwin  afid 
Atigelina  in  MS.,  and  .-)he  had  a  few  copies  privately  printed.  Forstcr's 
Goldsmith,  i.  379. 

IL— 25  the 


386  Retiring  from  business.  [a.d.  1775. 

the  Duchess  of  Northumberland  may  do  what  she  pleases: 
nobody  will  say  any  thing  to  a  lady  of  her  high  rank.  But 
I  should  be  apt  to  throw  ******'s'  verses  in  his  face.' 

I  talked  of  the  cheerfulness  of  Fleet-street,  owing  to  the 
constant  quick  succession  of  people  which  we  perceive  pass- 
ing through  it.  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir,  Fleet-street  has  a  very 
animated  appearance ;  but  I  think  the  full  tide  of  human 
existence  is  at  Charing-cross\' 

He  made  the  common  remark  on  the  unhappiness  which 
men  who  have  led  a  busy  life  experience,  when  they  retire 
in  expectation  of  enjoying  themselves  at  ease,  and  that  they 
generally  languish  for  want  of  their  habitual  occupation,  and 
wish  to  return  to  it.  He  mentioned  as  strong  an  instance 
of  this  as  can  well  be  imagined.  '  An  eminent  tallow-chand- 
ler in  London,  who  had  acquired  a  considerable  fortune,  gave 
up  the  trade  in  favour  of  his  foreman,  and  went  to  live  at  a 
country-house  near  town.  He  soon  grew  weary,  and  paid 
frequent  visits  to  his  old  shop,  where  he  desired  they  might 
let  him  know  their  melting-days,  and  he  would  come  and  as- 
sist them  ;  which  he  accordingly  did.  Here,  Sir,  was  a  man, 
to  whom  the  most  disgusting  circumstance  in  the  business 
to  which  he  had  been  used  was  a  relief  from  idleness ^' 

*  Perhaps  Mr.  Seward,  who  was  something  of  a  literary  man,  and 
who  visited  Bath  {post,  under  March  30,  17S3). 
"^  '  —  rerum 

Fluctibus  in  mediis  et  tempestatibus  urbis.' 
Horace,  Epistles,  ii.  2. 84.     See  ante,  i.  533. 
'  '  Qui  semel  adspexit  quantum  dimissa  petitis 

Praestent,  mature  redeat  repetatque  relicta.' 

Horace,  Epistles,  i.  7. 96. 
'  To  his  first  state  let  him  return  with  speed. 
Who  sees  how  far  the  joys  he  left  exceed 
His  present  choice.'  Francis. 

Malone  says  that  '  Walpole,  after  he  ceased  to  be  minister,  endeav- 
oured to  amuse  his  mind  with  reading.  But  one  day  when  Mr.  Wel- 
bore  Ellis  was  in  his  library,  he  heard  him  say,  with  tears  in  his  eyes, 
after  having  taken  up  several  books  and  at  last  thrown  away  a  folio 
just  taken  down  from  a  shelf,  "  Alas  !  it  is  all  in  vain  ;  I  cannot  read!'' 
Prior's  Malone,  p.  379.  Lord  Eldon,  after  his  retirement,  said  to  an 
inn-keeper  who  was  thinking  of  giving  up  business : — '  Believe  me, 

On 


Aetat.  66.]      Dr.  Tliomas  CampbeWs  Diary.  387 

On  Wednesday,  April  5,  I  dined  with  him  at  Messieurs 
Dillys',  with  Mr.  John  Scott  of  Amwell',  the  Quaker, 
Mr.  Langton,  Mr.  Miller,  (now  Sir  John,)  and  Dr.  Thomas 
Campbeir,  an  Irish  Clergyman,  whom  I  took  the  liberty  of 


for  I  speak  from  experience,  when  a  man  who  has  been  much  occu- 
pied through  life  arrives  at  having  nothing  to  do,  he  is  very  apt  not 
to  know  what  to  do  ivith  himself!  Later  on,  he  said  : — '  It  was  advice 
given  by  me  in  the  spirit  of  that  Principal  of  Brasenose,  who,  when 
he  took  leave  of  young  men  quitting  college,  used  to  say  to  them, 
"  Let  me  give  you  one  piece  of  advice.  Cave  de  resig7iatio7tibus."  And 
very  good  advice  too.'     Twiss's  Eldon,  iii.  246. 

'  See.  post,  April  10, 1775.  He  had  but  lately  begun  to  visit  London. 
'  Such  was  his  constant  apprehension  of  the  small-pox,  that  he  lived 
for  twenty  years  within  twenty  miles  of  London,  without  visiting  it 
more  than  once.'  At  the  age  of  thirty-five  he  was  inoculated,  and 
henceforth  was  oftener  in  town.     Campbell's  British  Poets,  p.  569. 

^  Mr.  S.  Raymond,  Prothonotary  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New 
South  Wales,  published  in  Sydney  in  1854  the  Diary  of  a  Visit  to 
England  in  1775,  by  an  Irishfnan,  {The  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  Campbell,) 
with  Notes.  The  MS.,  the  editor  says,  was  discovered  behind  an  old 
press  in  one  of  the  offices  of  his  Court.  The  name  of  the  writer  no- 
where appears  in  the  MS.  It  is  clear,  however,  that  if  it  is  not  a  forg- 
ery, the  author  was  Campbell.  In  the  Edinburgh  Review  for  Oct. 
1859,  its  authenticity  is  examined,  and  is  declared  to  be  beyond  a 
doubt.  Lord  Macaulay  aided  the  Reviewer  in  his  investigation.  lb. 
p.  323.  He  could  scarcely,  however,  have  come  to  his  task  with  a 
mind  altogether  free  from  bias,  for  the  editor  '  has  contrived,'  we  are 
told,  'to  expose  another  of  Mr.  Croker's  blunders.'  Faith  in  him  can- 
not be  wrong  who  proves  that  Croker  is  not  in  the  right.  The  value 
of  this  Diary  is  rated  too  highly  by  the  Reviewer.  The  Master  of 
Balliol  College  has  pointed  out  to  me  that  it  adds  but  very  little  to 
Johnson's  sayings.  So  far  as  he  is  concerned,  we  are  told  scarcely 
any  thing  of  mark  that  we  did  not  know  already.  This  makes  the 
Master  doubt  its  genuineness.  I  have  noticed  one  suspicious  passage. 
An  account  is  given  of  a  dinner  at  Mr.  Thrale's  on  April  i,  at  which 
Campbell  met  Murphy,  Boswcll,  and  Baretti.  '  Johnson's  bons  mots 
were  retailed  in  such  plenty  that  they,  like  a  surfeit,  could  not  lie  upon 
my  memory.'  In  one  of  the  stories  told  by  Murphy,  Johnson  is  made 
to  say, '  Damn  the  rascal.'  Murphy  would  as  soon  have  made  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  swear  as  Johnson  ;  much  sooner  the  Arch- 
bishop of  York.  It  was  Murphy  '  who  paid  him  the  highest  compli- 
ment that  ever  was  paid  to  a  layman,  by  asking  his  pardon  for  repeat- 
inviting 


388  Publick  speaking.  [a.d.  1775. 

inviting  to  Mr.  Dilly's  table,  having  seen  him  at  Mr.  Thrale's, 
and  been  told  that  he  had  come  to  England  chiefly  with 
a  view  to  see  Dr.  Johnson,  for  whom  he  entertained  the 
highest  veneration.  He  has  since  published  A  Philosophical 
Survey  of  the  South  of  Ireland,  a  very  entertaining  book, 
which  has,  however,  one  fault;  —  that  it  assumes  the  ficti- 
tious character  of  an  Englishman. 

We  talked  of  publick  speaking. — JOHNSON.  'We  must  not 
estimate  a  man's  powers  by  his  being  able  or  not  able  to  de- 
liver his  sentiments  in  publick.  Isaac  Hawkins  Browne^ 
one  of  the  first  wits  of  this  country,  got  into  Parliament,  and 
never  opened  his  mouth.  For  my  own  part,  I  think  it  is 
more  disgraceful  never  to  try  to  speak,  than  to  try  it  and 
fail ;  as  it  is  more  disgraceful  not  to  fight,  than  to  fight  and 
be  beaten.'  This  argument  appeared  to  me  fallacious ;  for 
if  a  man  has  not  spoken,  it  may  be  said  that  he  would  have 
done  very  well  if  he  had  tried ;  whereas,  if  he  has  tried  and 
failed,  there  is  nothing  to  be  said  for  him.  '  Why  then,  (I 
asked,)  is  it  thought  disgraceful  for  a  man  not  to  fight,  and 
not  disgraceful  not  to  speak  in  publick?'  JOHNSON.  'Be- 
cause there  may  be  other  reasons  for  a  man's  not  speaking 
in  publick  than  want  of  resolution :  he  may  have  nothing  to 
say,  (laughing.)   Whereas,  Sir,  you  know  courage  is  reckoned 

ing  some  oaths  in  the  course  of  telHng  a  story'  {post,  April  12,  1776). 
Even  supposing  that  at  this  time  he  was  ignorant  of  his  character, 
though  the  supposition  is  a  wild  one,  he  would  at  once  have  been  set 
right  by  Boswell  and  the  Thrales  (post,  under  March  15,  1776).  It 
is  curious,  that  this  anecdote  imputing  profanity  to  Johnson  is  not 
quoted  by  the  Edinburgh  reviewer.  On  the  whole  I  think  that  the 
Diary  is  genuine,  and  accordingly  I  have  quoted  it  more  than  once. 

'  Mrs.  Piozzi  {Anec.  p.  173)  says  that  Johnson  spoke  of  Browne  as 
'  of  all  conversers  the  most  delightful  with  whom  he  ever  was  in  com- 
pany.'    Pope's  bathos,  in  his  lines  to  Murray  : — 

'  Graced  as  thou  art  with  all  the  power  of  words. 
So  known,  so  honoured,  at  the  House  of  Lords,' 
was  happily  parodied  by  Browne  :— 

'  Persuasion  tips  his  tongue  whene'er  he  talks. 
And  he  has  chambers  in  the  King's  Bench  Walks.' 
Pattison's  Satires  of  Pope,  pp.  57,  134.    See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Sept.  5. 

the 


Aetat.  60.]  Colley  Cibbev.  389 

the  greatest  of  all  virtues ;  because,  unless  a  man  has  that 
virtue,  he  has  no  security  for  preserving  any  other.' 

He  observed,  that  '  the  statutes  against  bribery  were  in- 
tended to  prevent  upstarts  with  money  from  getting  into 
Parliament';'  adding,  that  'if  he  were  a  gentleman  of  landed 
property,  he  would  turn  out  all  his  tenants  who  did  not  vote 
for  the  candidate  whom  he  supported".'  Langton.  'Would 
not  that.  Sir,  be  checking  the  freedom  of  election  ?'  JOHN- 
SON. '  Sir,  the  law  does  not  mean  that  the  privilege  of  vot- 
ing should  be  independent  of  old  family  interest ;  of  the 
permanent  property  of  the  country.' 

On  Thursday,  April  6,  I  dined  with  him  at  Mr.  Thomas 
Davies's,  with  Mr.  Hicky^the  painter,  and  my  old  acquaint- 
ance Mr.  IVIoody,  the  player. 

Dr.  Johnson,  as  usual,  spoke  contemptuously  of  Colley 
Gibber.  '  It  is  wonderful  that  a  man,  who  for  forty  years 
had  lived  with  the  great  and  the  witty,  should  have  ac- 
quired so  ill  the  talents  of  conversation :  and  he  had  but 
half  to  furnish  ;  for  one  half  of  what  he  said  was  oaths'.' 
He,  however,  allowed  considerable  merit  to  some  of  his 
comedies,  and  said  there  was  no  reason  to  believe  that  the 

'  Horace  Walpole  says  of  Beckford's  Bribery  Bill  of  1768  : — '  Gren- 
ville,  to  flatter  the  country  gentlemen,  who  can  ill  afTord  to  com- 
bat with  great  lords,  nabobs,  commissaries,  and  West  Indians,  de- 
claimed in  favour  of  the  bill.'  Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  George  III, 
iii.  159. 

*  See  ante,  ii.  192,  where  he  said  much  the  same.  Another  day,  how- 
ever, he  agreed  that  a  landlord  ought  to  give  leases  to  his  tenants, 
and  not '  wish  to  keep  them  in  a  wretched  dependance  on  his  will. 
"  It  is  a  man's  duty,"  he  said, "  to  extend  comfort  and  security  among 
as  many  people  as  he  can.  He  should  not  wish  to  have  his  tenants 
mere  Epheniercv — mere  beings  of  an  hour."  '    Boswcll's  Hebrides,  Oct. 

10.1773- 

^  '  Thomas  Hickey  is  now  best  remembered  by  a  characteristic  por- 
trait of  his  friend  Tom  Davies,  engraved  with  Mickey's  name  to  it.' 
P.  Cunningham. 

*  See  ante,  ii.  106.  In  the  Life  of  Pope  {Works, \'\\\.  302),  Johnson 
says  that  '  the  shafts  of  satire  were  directed  in  vain  against  Gibber, 
being  repelled  by  his  impenetrable  impudence.'  Pope  speaks  of  Gib- 
ber's '  impenetrability.'     Elwin's  Pope,  ix.  231. 

Careless 


390  Charles  the  Second.  [a.d.  1775. 

Careless  Husband  was  not  written  by  himself.  Davies  said, 
he  was  the  first  dramatick- writer  who  introduced  genteel 
ladies  upon  the  stage.  Johnson  refuted  this  observation 
by  instancing  several  such  characters  in  comedies  before  his 
time.  Davies,  (trying  to  defend  himself  from  a  charge  of 
ignorance.)  '  I  mean  genteel  moral  characters.'  *  I  think, 
(said  Hicky,)  gentility  and  morality  are  inseparable.'  BOS- 
WELL.  '  By  no  means.  Sir.  The  genteelest  characters  are 
often  the  most  immoral.  Does  not  Lord  Chesterfield  give 
precepts  for  uniting  wickedness  and  the  graces?  A  man, 
indeed,  is  not  genteel  when  he  gets  drunk;  but  most  vices 
may  be  committed  very  genteelly :  a  man  may  debauch  his 
friend's  wife  genteely :  he  may  cheat  at  cards  genteely.' 
HiCKY.  '  I  do  not  think  that  is  genteel.'  BOSWELL.  '  Sir, 
it  may  not  be  like  a  gentleman,  but  it  may  be  genteel.' 
Johnson.  '  You  are  meaning  two  different  things.  One 
means  exteriour  grace ;  the  other  honour.  It  is  certain  that 
a  man  may  be  very  immoral  with  exteriour  grace.  Love- 
lace, in  Clarissa,  is  a  very  genteel  and  a  very  wicked  char- 
acter. Tom  Hervey',  who  died  t'other  day,  though  a  vi- 
cious man,  was  one  of  the  genteelest  men  that  ever  lived.' 
Tom  Davies  instanced  Charles  the  Second.  JOHNSON,  (tak- 
ing fire  at  any  attack  upon  that  Prince,  for  whom  he  had  an 
extraordinary  partiality ^)  'Charles  the  Second  was  licen- 
tious in  his  practice ;  but  he  always  had  a  reverence  for 
what  was  good.  Charles  the  Second  knew  his  people,  and 
rewarded  merit*.     The  Church  was  at  no  time  better  filled 

'  He  alludes  perhaps  to  a  note  on  the  Dunciad,  ii.  140,  in  which  it  is 
stated  that '  the  author  has  celebrated  even  Gibber  himself  (presuming 
him  to  be  the  author  of  the  Careless  Husband).'  Sco.  posl.  May  15, 
1776,  note. 

^  See  ante,  ii.  36. 

^  Burke  told  Malone  that '  Hume,  in  compiling  his  History,  did  not 
give  himself  a  great  deal  of  trouble  in  examining  records,  &c. ;  and 
that  the  part  he  most  laboured  at  was  the  reign  of  King  Charles  H, 
for  whom  he  had  an  unaccountable  partiality.'    Prior's  Malone,  p.  368. 

^  Yet  Johnson  (  Works,  vii.  177)  wrote  of  Otway,  who  was  nine  years 
old  when  Charles  H  came  to  the  throne,  and  who  outlived  him  by 
only  a  few  weeks : — '  He  had  what  was  in  those  times  the  common 

than 


Aetat.  66.]  George  the  First's  will.  391 

than  in  his  reign.  He  was  the  best  King  we  have  had 
from  his  time  till  the  reign  of  his  present  Majesty,  ex- 
cept James  the  Second,  who  was  a  very  good  King,  but 
unhappily  believed  that  it  was  necessary  for  the  salvation 
of  his  subjects  that  they  should  be  Roman  Catholicks.  He 
had  the  merit  of  endeavouring  to  do  what  he  thought  was 
for  the  salvation  of  the  souls  of  his  subjects,  till  he  lost  a 
great  Empire.  Wc,  who  thought  that  we  should  not  be 
saved  if  we  were  Roman  Catholicks,  had  the  merit  of  main- 
taining our  religion,  at  the  expencc  of  submitting  ourselves 
to  the  government  of  King  William',  (for  it  could  not  be 
done  otherwise,) — to  the  government  of  one  of  the  most 
worthless  scoundrels  that  ever  existed.     No ;  Charles  the 

Second  was  not  such  a  man  as ,  (naming  another  King). 

He  did  not  destroy  his   father's  wiir.      He  took  money, 

reward  of  loyalty  ;  he  lived  and  died  neglected.'  Hawkins  {Life,  p.  51) 
says  that  he  heard  Johnson  '  speak  of  Dr.  Hodges  who,  in  the  height  of 
the  Great  Plague  of  1665,  continued  in  London,  and  was  almost  the 
only  one  of  his  profession  that  had  the  courage  to  oppose  his  art  to  the 
spreading  of  the  contagion.  It  was  his  hard  fate,  a  short  time  after,  to 
die  in  prison  for  debt  in  Ludgate.  Johnson  related  this  to  us  with  the 
tears  ready  to  start  from  his  eyes  ;  and,  with  great  energy,  said,  "  Such 
a  man  would  not  have  been  suffered  to  perish  in  these  times." ' 

'  Johnson  in  1742  said  that  William  HI  'was  arbitrary,  insolent, 
gloomy,  rapacious,  and  brutal ;  that  he  was  at  all  times  disposed  to 
play  the  tyrant ;  that  he  had,  neither  in  great  things  nor  in  small,  the 
manners  of  a  gentleman ;  that  he  was  capable  of  gaining  money  by 
mean  artifices,  and  that  he  only  regarded  his  promise  when  it  was  his 
interest  to  keep  it.'  Works,  vi.  6.  Nearly  forty  years  later,  in  his  Life 
of  Rowc  {ib.  vii.  408),  he  aimed  a  fine  stroke  at  that  King.  '  The  fashion 
of  the  time,'  he  wrote, '  was  to  accumulate  upon  Lewis  all  that  can 
raise  horrour  and  detestation  ;  and  whatever  good  was  withheld  from 
him,  that  it  might  not  be  thrown  away,  was  bestowed  upon  King 
William.'  Yet  in  the  Life  of  Prior  {ib.  viii.  4)  he  allowed  him  great 
merit.  '  His  whole  life  had  been  action,  and  none  ever  denied  him 
the  resplendent  qualities  of  steady  resolution  and  personal  courage.' 
See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Sept.  24,  1773. 

'  '  The  fact  of  suppressing  the  will  is  indubitably  true,'  wrote  Hor- 
ace Walpole  {Letters,  vii.  142).  'When  the  news  arrived  of  the  death 
of  George  L  my  father  carried  the  account  from  Lord  Townshend  to 
the  then  Prince  of  Wales.    The  Council  met  as  soon  as  possible. 

indeed. 


392  Dr.  Campbell  comes  to  see  Johnson,    [a.d.  1775. 


indeed,  from  France  :  but  he  did  not  betray  those  over  whom 
he  ruled':  He  did  not  let  the  French  fleet  pass  ours. 
George  the  First  knew  nothing,  and  desired  to  know  noth- 
ing; did  nothing,  and  desired  to  do  nothing:  and  the  only 
good  thing  that  is  told  of  him  is,  that  he  wished  to  restore 
the  crown  to  its  hereditary  successor".'  He  roared  with 
prodigious  violence  against  George  the  Second.  When  he 
ceased.  Moody  interjected,  in  an  Irish  tone,  and  with  a  com- 
ick  look,  'Ah  !  poor  George  the  Second.' 

I  mentioned  that  Dr.  Thomas  Campbell  had  come  from 
Ireland  to  London,  principally  to  see  Dr.  Johnson.  He 
seemed  angry  at  this  observation.  Davies.  '  Why,  you 
know.  Sir,  there  came  a  man  from  Spain  to  see  Livy';  and 
Corelli  came  to  England  to  see  Purceir,  and  when  he  heard 
he  was  dead,  went  directly  back  again  to  Italy.'  JOHN- 
SON. '  I  should  not  have  wished  to  be  dead  to  disappoint 
Campbell,  had  he  been  so  foolish  as  you  represent  him  ;  but 
I  should  have  wished  to  have  been  a  hundred  miles  off.' 
This  was  apparently  perverse ;  and  I  do  believe  it  was  not 
his  real  way  of  thinking :  he  could  not  but  like  a  man  who 
came  so  far  to  see  him.  He  laughed  with  some  compla- 
cency, when  I  told  him  Campbell's  odd  expression  to  me 

There  Archbishop  Wake,  with  whom  one  copy  of  the  will  had  been 
deposited,  advanced,  and  deUvered  the  will  to  the  King,  who  put  it 
into  his  pocket,  and  went  out  of  Council  without  opening  it,  the  Arch- 
bishop not  having  courage  or  presence  of  mind  to  desire  it  to  be  read, 
as  he  ought  to  have  done.  I  was  once  talking  to  the  late  Lady  Suf- 
folk, the  former  mistress,  on  that  extraordinary  event.  She  said, "  I 
cannot  justify  the  deed  to  the  legatees ;  but  towards  his  father,  the 
late  King  was  justifiable,  for  George  I  had  burnt  two  wills  made  in 
favour  of  George  II.'" 

'  'Charles  II  by  his  affability  and  politeness  made  himself  the  idol 
of  the  nation,  which  he  betrayed  and  sold.'    Johnson's  Works,  vi.  7. 

'^  '  It  was  maliciously  circulated  that  George  was  indifferent  to  his 
own  succession,  and  scarcely  willing  to  stretch  out  a  hand  to  grasp 
the  crown  within  his  reach.'     Coxe's  Memoirs  of  Walpolc,  i.  57. 

^  Plin.  Epist.  lib.  ii.  ep.  3.     Boswell. 

*  Mr.  Davies  was  here  mistaken.     Corelli  never  was  in  England. 

BURNEY. 

concernincf 


Aetat.  66.]  Judges  engaging  in  trade.  393 

concerning  him  :  '  That  having  seen  such  a  man,  was  a  thing 
to  talk  of  a  century  hence,' — as  if  he  could  live  so  long'. 

We  got  into  an  argument  whether  the  Judges  who  went 
to  India  might  with  propriety  engage  in  trade.  Johnson 
warmly  maintained  that  they  might.  *  For  why,  (he  urged,) 
should  not  Judges  get  riches,  as  well  as  those  who  deserve 
them  less  ?'  I  said,  they  should  have  sufficient  salaries,  and 
have  nothing  to  take  off  their  attention  from  the  affairs  of 
the  publick.  JOHNSON.  '  No  Judge,  Sir,  can  give  his  whole 
attention  to  his  office ;  and  it  is  very  proper  that  he  should 
employ  what  time  he  has  to  himself,  to  his  own  advantage, 
in  the  most  profitable  manner.'  'Then,  Sir,  (said  Davies, 
who  enlivened  the  dispute  by  making  it  somewhat  dramat- 
ick,)  he  may  become  an  insurer ;  and  when  he  is  going  to 
the  bench,  he  may  be  stopped, — "  Your  Lordship  cannot  go 
yet :  here  is  a  bunch  of  invoices :  several  ships  are  about  to 
sail."  '  Johnson.  *  Sir,  you  may  as  well  say  a  Judge  should 
not  have  a  house ;  for  they  may  come  and  tell  him,  "  Your 
Lordship's  house  is  on  fire ;"  and  so,  instead  of  minding  the 
business  of  his  Court,  he  is  to  be  occupied  in  getting  the 
engine  with  the  greatest  speed.  There  is  no  end  of  this. 
Every  Judge  who  has  land,  trades  to  a  certain  extent  in  corn 
or  in  cattle ;  and  in  the  land  itself,  undoubtedly.  His  stew- 
ard acts  for  him,  and  so  do  clerks  for  a  great  merchant.  A 
Judge  may  be  a  farmer;  but  he  is  not  to  geld  his  own  pigs*. 
A  Judge  may  play  a  little  at  cards  for  his  amusement;  but 

'  Mr.  Croker  is  wrong  in  saying  that  the  Irishman  in  Mrs.  Thrale's 
letter  of  May  i6,  1776  {Piozzi  Letters,  i.  329),  is  Dr.  Campbell.  The 
man  mentioned  there  had  never  met  Johnson,  though  she  wrote  more 
than  a  year  after  this  dinner  at  Davies's.  She  certainly  quotes  one  of 
'  Dr.  C — I's  phrases,'  but  she  might  also  have  quoted  Shakspeare.  I 
have  no  doubt  that  Mrs.  Thrale's  Irishman  was  a  Mr.  Musgrave  {post, 
under  June  16,  1784,  note),  who  is  humorously  described  in  Mme. 
D'Arblay's  Diary,  ii.  83.  Since  writing  this  note  I  have  seen  that 
the  Edinburgh  reviewer  (Oct.  1859,  p.  326)  had  come  to  the  same 
conclusion. 

^  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  26, 1773,  where  Johnson  said  that  *  he 
did  not  approve  of  ?  Judge's  calling  himself  Farmer  Burnett,  and 
going  about  with  a  little  round  hat.' 

he 


394  Judges  etigaging  in  trade,  [a.d.  1775. 

he  is  not  to  play  at  marbles,  or  at  chuck-farthing  in  the  Pi- 
azza. No,  Sir ;  there  is  no  profession  to  which  a  man  gives 
a  very  great  proportion  of  his  time.  It  is  wonderful,  when 
a  calculation  is  made,  how  little  the  mind  is  actually  em- 
ployed in  the  discharge  of  any  profession.  No  man  would 
be  a  Judge,  upon  the  condition  of  being  totally  a  Judge.  The 
best  employed  lawyer  has  his  mind  at  work  but  for  a  small 
proportion  of  his  time :  a  great  deal  of  his  occupation  is 
merely  mechanical'.  I  once  wrote  for  a  magazine  :  I  made  a 
calculation,  that  if  I  should  write  but  a  page  a  day,  at  the 
same  rate,  I  should,  in  ten  years,  write  nine  volumes  in  folio, 
of  an  ordinary  size  and  print.'  BOSWELL.  '  Such  as  Carte's 
History  f  Johnson.  '  Yes,  Sir.  When  a  man  writes  from 
his  own  mind,  he  writes  very  rapidly  ^  The  greatest  part 
of  a  writer's  time  is  spent  in  reading,  in  order  to  write :  a 
man  will  turn  over  half  a  library  to  make  one  book.' 

I  argued  warmly  against  the  Judges  trading,  and  men- 
tioned Hale  as  an  instance  of  a  perfect  Judge,  who  de- 
voted himself  entirely  to  his  ofifice.  JOHNSON.  '  Hale,  Sir, 
attended  to  other  things  besides  law :  he  left  a  great  estate.' 
BosWELL.  '  That  was,  because  what  he  got,  accumulated 
without  any  exertion  and  anxiety  on  his  part.' 

While  the  dispute  went  on.  Moody  once  tried  to  say 
something  upon  our  side.  Tom  Davies  clapped  him  on 
the  back,  to  encourage  him.  Beauclerk,  to  whom  I  men- 
tioned this  circumstance,  said, '  that  he  could  not  conceive 
a  more  humiliating  situation  than  to  be  clapped  on  thfe 
back  by  Tom  Davies.' 

We  spoke  of  Rolt,  to  whose  Dictionary  of  Commerce  Dr. 
Johnson  wrote  the  Prefaced     Johnson.  '  Old  Gardner  the 

*  '  If  all  the  employments  of  life  were  crowded  into  the  time  which 
it  [sic]  really  occupied,  perhaps  a  few  weeks,  days,  or  hours  would  be 
sufficient  for  its  accomplishment,  so  far  as  the  mind  was  engaged  in 
the  performance.'     The  Rambler,  No.  8. 

^  Johnson  certainly  did,  who  had  a  mind  stored  with  knowledge, 
and  teeming  with  imagery :  but  the  observation  is  not  applicable  to 
writers  in  general.     Boswell.     See  post,  April  20, 1783. 

^  See  a7ite,  i.  415. 

bookseller 


Aetat.  66.]    Smart  and  The  Universal  Visitor.      395 

bookseller  employed  Rolt  and  Smart  to  write  a  monthly  mis- 
cellany, called  The  Universal  Visitor  \  There  was  a  formal 
written  contract,  which  Allen  the  printer  saw.  Gardner 
thought  as  you  do  of  the  Judge.  They  were  bound  to  write 
nothing  else ;  they  were  to  have,  I  think,  a  third  of  the 
profits  of  this  sixpenny  pamphlet ;  and  the  contract  was 
for  ninety-nine  years.  I  wish  I  had  thought  of  giving  this 
to  Thurlow,  in  the  cause  about  Literary  Property.  What 
an  excellent  instance  would  it  have  been  of  the  oppression 
of  booksellers  towards  poor  authours^ !'  (smiling.)  Davies, 
zealous  for  the  honour  of  t/ie  Trade^,  said,  Gardner  was  not 
properly  a  bookseller.  JOHNSON.  'Nay,  Sir;  he  certainly 
was  a  bookseller.  He  had  served  his  time  regularly,  was 
a  member  of  tlie  Stationers'  company,  kept  a  shop  in  the 
face  of  mankind,  purchased  copyright,  and  was  a  bibliopole", 
Sir,  in  every  sense.  I  wrote  for  some  months  in  The  Uni- 
versal Visitor,  for  poor  Smart,  while  he  was  mad,  not  then 
knowing  the  terms  on  which  he  was  engaged  to  write,  and 
thinking  I  was  doing  him  good.  I  hoped  his  wits  would 
soon  return  to  him.  Mine  returned  to  me,  and  I  wrote  in 
The  U?iiversal  Visitor  no  longer.' 

Friday,  April  7,  I  dined  with  him  at  a  Tavern,  with  a 
numerous    company  ^      JOHNSON.    '  I    have    been    reading 

*  See  ante,  i.  354. 

"  There  has  probably  been  some  mistake  as  to  the  terms  of  this 
supposed  extraordinary  contract,  the  recital  of  which  from  hearsay 
afforded  Johnson  so  much  play  for  his  sportive  acuteness.  Or  if  it 
was  worded  as  he  supposed,  it  is  so  strange  that  I  should  conclude  it 
was  a  joke.  Mr.  Gardner,  I  am  assured,  was  a  worthy  and  a  liberal 
man.  Boswell.  Thurlow,  when  Attorney-General,  had  been  coun- 
sel for  the  Donaldsons,  in  the  appeal  before  the  House  of  Lords  on 
the  Right  of  Literary^  Property  (ante,  i.  506,  and  ii.  312.)  In  his  argu- 
ment '  he  observed  (exemplifying  his  observations  by  several  cases) 
that  the  booksellers  had  not  till  lately  ever  concerned  themselves 
about  authors.'     Gent.  Mag.  for  1774,  p.  51. 

'  '  The  booksellers  of  London  are  denominated  the  trade '  {post, 
April  15, 1778,  note). 

■*  Bibliopole  is  not  in  Johnson's  Dictionary. 

"  The  Literary  Club.    Sec  a7ite,  ii.  377,  note  3.    Mr.  Croker  says  that 

Twiss's 


396  Addisoiis  Italian  learning.  [a.d.  1775. 

Twiss's  Travels  in  Spain,  which  arc  just  come  out.  They 
are  as  good  as  the  first  book  of  travels  that  you  will  take 
up.  They  are  as  good  as  those  of  Keysler'  or  Blainville'' ; 
nay,  as  Addison's,  if  you  except  the  learning.  They  are 
not  so  good  as  Brydone's^  but  they  are  better  than  Po- 
cocke's*.  I  have  not,  indeed,  cut  the  leaves  yet;  but  I 
have  read  in  them  where  the  pages  are  open,  and  I  do  not 
suppose  that  what  is  in  the  pages  which  are  closed  is  worse 
than  what  is  in  the  open  pages.  It  would  seem,  (he  added,) 
that  Addison  had  not  acquired  much  Italian  learning,  for 
we  do  not  find  it  introduced  into  his  writings \  The  only 
instance  that  I  recollect,  is  his  quoting  ''  Stavo  bene;  per  star 
meglio,  sto  gni^y 

I   mentioned   Addison's   having   borrowed    many  of  his 

the  records  of  the  Club  show  that,  after  the  first  few  years,  Johnson 
very  rarely  attended,  and  that  he  and  Boswell  never  met  there  above 
seven  or  eight  times.  It  may  be  observed,  he  adds,  how  very  rarely 
Boswell  records  the  conversation  at  the  club.  Except  in  one  instance 
{post,  April  3,  1778),  he  says,  Boswell  confines  his  report  to  what  John- 
son or  himself  may  have  said.  That  this  is  not  strictly  true  is  shewn 
by  his  report  of  the  dinner  recorded  above,  where  we  find  reported 
remarks  of  Beauclerk  and  Gibbon.  Seven  meetings  besides  this  are 
mentioned  by  Boswell.  See  ante,  ii.  275,  293,  363,  377  ;  and  post,  April 
3,  1778,  April  16,  1779,  ^r^d  June  22,  1784.  Of  all  but  the  last  there  is 
some  report,  however  brief,  of  something  said.  When  Johnson  was 
not  present,  Boswell  would  have  nothing  to  record  in  this  book. 

'  Travels  through  Gerrnany,  &^c.,  1756-7. 

^  Travels  through  Holland,  &^c.     Translated  from  the  French,  1743. 

^  See  post,  March  24, 1776,  and  May  17, 1778. 

*  Description  of  tJie  East,  1743-5. 

*  Johnson  had  made  the  same  remark,  and  Boswell  had  mentioned 
Leandro  Alberti,  when  they  were  talking  in  an  inn  in  the  Island  of 
Mull.     Boswell's  Hebrides,  Oct.  14,  1773. 

"  Addison  does  not  mention  where  this  epitaph,  which  has  eluded 
a  very  diligent  inquiry,  is  found.  Malone.  I  have  found  it  quoted 
in  old  Howell.  '  The  Italian  saying  may  be  well  applied  to  poor  Eng- 
land : — "  I  was  well — would  be  better — took  physic — and  died."  '  Lett. 
Jan.  20,  1647.  Croker.  It  is  quoted  by  Addison  in  The  Spectator, 
No.  25: — 'This  letter  puts  me  in  mind  of  an  Italian  epitaph  written 
on  the  monument  of  a  Valetudinarian  :  Stavo  ben,  nia  per  star  nicglio 
sto  qui,  which  it  is  impossible  to  translate.' 

classical 


Aetat.  66.]     Preservatio7i  of  tmwriilen  poems.  397 

classical  remarks  from  Leandro  Albert! ".  Mr.  Bcauclerk 
said, '  It  was  alledged  that  he  had  borrowed  also  from  an- 
other Italian  authour.'  JOHNSON.  'Why,  Sir,  all  who  go 
to  look  for  what  the  Classicks  have  said  of  Italy,  must  find 
the  same  passages ;  and  I  should  think  it  would  be  one 
of  the  first  things  the  Italians  would  do  on  the  revival  of 
learning,  to  collect  all  that  the  Roman  authours  have  said 
of  their  country.' 

Ossian  being  mentioned  ;  —  JOHNSON.  '  Supposing  the 
Irish  and  Erse  languages  to  be  the  same,  which  I  do  not 
believe'',  yet  as  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  in- 
habitants of  the  Highlands  and  Hebrides  ever  wrote  their 
native  language,  it  is  not  to  be  credited  that  a  long  poem 
was  preserved  among  them.  If  we  had  no  evidence  of  the 
art  of  writing  being  practised  in  one  of  the  counties  of 
England,  we  should  not  believe  that  a  long  poem  was  pre- 
served there,  though  in  the  neighbouring  counties,  where 
the  same  language  was  spoken,  the  inhabitants  could  write.' 
Beauclerk.  '  The  ballad  of  Lillibiirlero  was  once  in  the 
mouths  of  all  the  people  of  this  country,  and  is  said  to  have 
had  a  great  effect  in  bringing  about  the  Revolution  \  Yet 
I  question  whether  any   body  can   repeat   it   now ;  which 


'  Lord  Chesterfield,  as  Mr.  Croker  points  out,  makes  the  same  ob- 
servation in  one  of  his  Letters  to  his  Son  (ii.  351).  Boswell,  however, 
does  not  get  it  from  him,  for  he  had  said  the  same  in  the  Hebrides,  six 
months  before  the  pubUcation  of  Chesterfield's  Letters.  Addison,  in 
the  preface  to  his  Remarks,  says : — '  Before  I  entered  on  my  voyage  I 
took  care  to  refresh  my  memory  among  the  classic  authors,  and  to 
make  such  collections  out  of  them  as  I  might  afterwards  have  occa- 
sion for.' 

*  See  ante,  ii.  180. 

'  'It  made  an  impression  on  the  army  that  cannot  be  well  imagined 
by  those  who  saw  it  not.  The  whole  army,  and  at  last  all  people  both 
in  city  and  country  were  singing  it  perpetually,  and  perhaps  never  had 
so  slight  a  thing  so  great  an  effect.'  Burnet's  Own  Time,  edit.  1818, 
ii.  430.  In  Tristram  Shandy,  vol.  i.  chap,  x.xi,  when  Mr.  Shandy  ad- 
vanced one  of  his  hypotheses : — '  My  uncle  Toby,'  we  read, '  would  never 
offer  to  an.swcr  this  by  any  other  kind  of  argument  than  that  of  whist- 
ling half-a-dozen  bars  of  Lillibttrlero.' 

shews 


398  Patriotism.  [a.d.  1775. 

shews  how  improbable  it  is  that  much  poetry  should  be 
preserved  by  tradition.' 

One  of  the  company  suggested  an  internal  objection  to 
the  antiquity  of  the  poetry  said  to  be  Ossian's,  that  we  do 
not  find  the  wolf  in  it,  which  must  have  been  the  case  had 
it  been  of  that  age. 

The  mention  of  the  wolf  had  led  Johnson  to  think  of 
other  wild  beasts;  and  while  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  and  Mr. 
Langton  were  carrying  on  a  dialogue  about  something  which 
engaged  them  earnestly,  he,  in  the  midst  of  it,  broke  out, 
'  Pennant  tells  of  Bears — '  [what  he  added,  I  have  forgot- 
ten.] They  went  on,  which  he  being  dull  of  hearing,  did 
not  perceive,  or,  if  he  did,  was  not  willing  to  break  off  his 
talk ;  so  he  continued  to  vociferate  his  remarks,  and  Bear, 
('  like  a  word  in  a  catch '  as  Beauclerk  said,)  was  repeatedly 
heard  at  intervals,  which  coming  from  him  who,  by  those 
who  did  not  know  him,  had  been  so  often  assimilated  to 
that  ferocious  animal',  while  we  who  were  sitting  around 
could  hardly  stifle  laughter,  produced  a  very  ludicrous 
effect.  Silence  having  ensued,  he  proceeded :  '  We  are 
told,  that  the  black  bear  is  innocent ;  but  I  should  not 
like  to  trust  myself  with  him.'  Mr.  Gibbon  muttered, 
in  a  low  tone  of  voice,  '  I  should  not  like  to  trust  my- 
self with  you'  This  piece  of  sarcastick  pleasantry  was 
a  prudent  resolution,  if  applied  to  a  competition  of  abil- 
ities^ 

Patriotism  having  become  one  of  our  topicks,  Johnson 
suddenly  uttered,  in  a  strong  determined  tone,  an  apoph- 
thegm, at  which  many  will  start :   '  Patriotism  is  the  last 

*  See  ante,  ii. "](). 

*  '  Of  Gibbon,  Mackintosh  neatly  remarked  that  he  might  have  been 
cut  out  of  a  corner  of  Burke's  mind,  without  his  missing  it.'  Life  of 
Mackintosh,  i.  92.  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  Gibbon  scarcely  men- 
tions Johnson  in  his  writings.  Moreover,  in  the  names  that  he  gives 
of  the  members  of  the  Literary  Club, '  who  form  a  large  and  luminous 
constellation  of  British  stars,'  though  he  mentions  eighteen  of  them, 
he  passes  over  Boswell.  Gihhon' s  Misc.  Works,  i.2ig.  Sqq  aXso  post, 
April  iS,  1775. 

refuge 


Aetat.  66.]  Mrs.  Pritchard.  399 

refuge  of  a  scoundrer.'  But  let  it  be  considered,  that  he 
did  not  mean  a  real  and  generous  love  of  our  country,  but 
that  pretended  patriotism  which  so  many,  in  all  ages  and 
countries,  have  made  a  cloak  for  self-interest.  I  maintain, 
that  certainly  all  patriots  were  not  scoundrels.  Being  urged, 
(not  by  Johnson,)  to  name  one  exception,  I  mentioned  an 
eminent  person',  whom  we  all  greatly  admired.  JOHNSON. 
*  Sir,  I  do  not  say  that  he  is  7iot  honest ;  but  we  have  no 
reason  to  conclude  from  his  political  conduct  that  he  is 
honest.  Were  he  to  accept  of  a  place  from  this  ministry, 
he  would  lose  that  character  of  firmness  which  he  has,  and 
might  be  turned  out  of  his  place  in  a  year.  This  ministry 
is  neither  stable  ^  nor  grateful  to  their  friends,  as  Sir  Robert 
Walpole  was,  so  that  he  may  think  it  more  for  his  interest 
to  take  his  chance  of  his  party  coming  in.' 

Mrs.  Pritchard  being  mentioned,  he  said,  *  Her  playing  was 
quite  mechanical.  It  is  wonderful  how  little  mind  she  had. 
Sir,  she  had  never  read  the  tragedy  of  Macbeth  all  through. 
She  no  more  thought  of  the  play  out  of  which  her  part 
was  taken,  than  a  shoemaker  thinks  of  the  skin,  out  of  which 
the  piece  of  leather,  of  which  he  is  making  a  pair  of  shoes, 
is  cut'.' 


'  We  may  compare  with  this  Dryden's  Hne : — 

'  Usurped  a  patriot's  all-atoning  name.' 
Absalom  and Achitophcl,  1.  179.  Hawkins  {Life,-^.  506)  says  that  'to 
party  opposition  Johnson  ever  expressed  great  aversion,  and  of  the 
pretences  of  patriots  always  spoke  with  indignation  and  contempt.' 
He  had,  Hawkins  adds, '  partaken  of  the  short-Uved  joy  that  infatu- 
ated the  public '  when  Walpole  fell ;  but  a  few  days  convinced  him 
that  the  patriotism  of  the  opposition  had  been  either  hatred  or  ambi- 
tion.    For  patriots,  see  ante,  i.  342,  note,  and  post,  April  6,  1 78 1 . 

="  Mr.  Burke.     See  rt«/^,  ii.  255,  note  4. 

'  Lord  North's  ministry  lasted  from  1770  to  1782. 

*  Perhaps  Johnson  had  this  from  Davies,  who  says  {Life  of  Gar- 
rick,  i.  124): — 'Mrs.  Pritchard  read  no  more  of  the  play  of  Macbeth 
than  her  own  part,  as  written  out  and  delivered  to  her  by  the  prompt- 
er.' She  played  the  heroine  in  Irene  (ante,  i.  229) .  Sec  post  under  Sept. 
30,  1783,  where  Johnson  says  that  'in  common  life  she  was  a  vulgar 
idiot,'  and  Boswell's //^-^r^V/^'j,  Aug.  28, 1773. 

On 


400  Mrs.  Thrales  coarse  flattery.         [a.d.  1775. 

On  Saturday,  May  8',  I  dined  with  him  at  Mr.  Thrale's, 
where  Ave  met  the  Irish  Dr.  Campbell".  Johnson  had 
supped  the  night  before  at  Mrs.  Abington's,  with  some 
fashionable  people  whom  he  named  ;  and  he  seemed 
much  pleased  with  having  made  one  in  so  elegant  a 
circle.  Nor  did  he  omit  to  pique  his  mistress^  a  little 
with  jealousy  of  her  housewifery ;  for  he  said,  (with  a 
smile,)  '  Mrs.  Abington's  jelly,  my  dear  Lady,  was  better 
than  yours.' 

Mrs.  Thrale,  who  frequently  practised  a  coarse  mode  of 
flattery,  by  repeating  his  boii-mots  in  his  hearing*,  told  us 
that  he  had  said,  a  certain  celebrated  actor  was  just  fit  to 
stand  at  the  door  of  an  auction-room  with  a  long  pole,  and 
cry  '  Pray  gentlemen,  walk  in ;'  and  that  a  certain  authour, 
upon  hearing  this,  had  said,  that  another  still  more  cele- 
brated actor  was  fit  for  nothing  better  than  that,  and  would 
pick  your  pocket  after  you  came  out^  JOHNSON.  'Nay, 
my  dear  lady,  there  is  no  wit  in  what  our  friend  added ; 
there  is  only  abuse.  You  may  as  well  say  of  any  man 
that  he  will  pick  a  pocket.  Besides,  the  man  who  is  sta- 
tioned at  the  door  does  not  pick  people's  pockets ;  that  is 
done  within,  by  the  auctioneer.' 

Mrs.  Thrale  told  us,  that  Tom  Davies  repeated,  in  a  very 
bald  manner,  the  story  of  Dr.  Johnson's  first  repartee  to 

*  A  misprint  for  April  8. 

^  Boswell  calls   him  the  '  Irish  Dr.  Campbell,'  to  distinguish  him 
from  the  Scotch  Dr.  Campbell  mentioned  ante,  i.  483. 
'  See  ante,  i.  572. 

*  Baretti,  in  a  MS.  note  in  his  copy  of  Piozzi  Letters,  i.  374,  says  : — 
'Johnson  was  often  fond  of  saying  silly  things  in  strong  terms,  and 
the  silly  Madam  [Mrs.  Thrale]  never  failed  to  echo  that  beastly  kind 
of  wit.' 

'  According  to  Dr.  T.  Campbell,  who  was  present  at  the  dinner 
{Diary,  p.  66),  Barry  and  Garrick  were  the  two  actors,  and  Murphy 
the  author.  If  Murphy  said  this  in  the  heat  of  one  of  his  quarrels 
with  Garrick,  he  made  amends  in  his  Life  of  that  actor  (p.  362) : — '  It 
was  with  Garrick,'  he  wrote, '  a  fixed  principle,  that  authors  were  enti- 
tled to  the  emolument  of  their  labours,  and  by  that  generous  way  of 
thinking  he  held  out  an  invitation  to  men  of  genius.' 

.  me. 


Aetat.  66.]  General  Oglethoi'pe.  40 1 


me,  which  I  have  related  exactly'.  He  made  me  say,  *  I 
was  born  in  Scotland,*  instead  of  '  I  come  from  Scotland ;' 
so  that  Johnson  saying, '  That,  Sir,  is  what  a  great  many  of 
your  countrymen  cannot  help,'  had  no  point,  or  even  mean- 
ing :  and  that  upon  this  being  mentioned  to  Mr.  Fitzher- 
bert,  he  observed, '  It  is  not  every  man  that  can  carry  a  bon 
mot.' 

On  Monday,  April  10,  I  dined  with  him  at  General  Ogle- 
thorpe's, with  Mr.  Langton  and  the  Irish  Dr.  Campbell, 
whom  the  General  had  obligingly  given  me  leave  to  bring 
with  me.  This  learned  gentleman  was  thus  gratified  with 
a  very  high  intellectual  feast,  by  not  only  being  in  com- 
pany with  Dr.  Johnson,  but  with  General  Oglethorpe,  who 
had  been  so  long  a  celebrated  name  both  at  home  and 
abroad ^ 

I  must,  again  and  again,  intreat  of  my  readers  not  to  sup- 
pose that  my  imperfect  record  of  conversation  contains  the 
whole  of  what  was  said  by  Johnson,  or  other  eminent  per- 
sons who  lived  with  him.  What  I  have  preserved,  however, 
has  the  value  of  the  most  perfect  authenticity. 

'  See  ante,  i.  454.    Boswell. 

-  Let  me  here  be  allowed  to  pay  my  tribute  of  most  sincere  grati- 
tude to  the  memory  of  that  excellent  person,  my  intimacy  with  whom 
was  the  more  valuable  to  me,  because  my  first  acquaintance  with  him 
was  unexpected  and  unsolicited.  Soon  after  the  publication  of  my 
Accoitnt  of  Corsica,  he  did  me  the  honour  to  call  on  me,  and,  approach- 
ing me  with  a  frank  courteous  air,  said, '  My  name.  Sir,  is  Oglethorpe, 
and  I  wish  to  be  acquainted  with  you.'  I  was  not  a  little  flattered  to 
be  thus  addressed  by  an  eminent  man,  of  whom  I  had  read  in  Pope, 
from  my  early  years, 

'  Or,  driven  by  strong  benevolence  of  soul. 
Will  fly,  like  Oglethorpe,  from  pole  to  pole.' 
I  was  fortunate  enough  to  be  found  worthy  of  his  good  opinion,  inso- 
much, that  I  not  only  was  invited  to  make  one  in  the  many  respect- 
able companies  whom  he  entertained  at  his  table,  but  had  a  cover  at 
his  hospitable  board  every  day  when  I  happened  to  be  disengaged ; 
and  in  his  society  I  never  failed  to  enjoy  learned  and  animated  con- 
versation, seasoned  with  genuine  sentiments  of  virtue  and  religion. 
Boswell.  See  ante,  i.  147,  and  ii.  67,  note  i.  The  couplet  from  Pope 
is  from  Imitations  of  Horace,  Epist.  ii.  2.  276. 

II.— 26  He 


402  The  present  state  never  happy.        [a.d.  1775. 

He  this  day  enlarged  upon  Pope's  melancholy  remark, 
'Man  never  is,  but  always  to  be  blest'.' 

He  asserted  that  tJic  present  was  never  a  happy  state  to 
any  human  being ;  but  that,  as  every  part  of  life,  of  which 
we  are  conscious,  was  at  some  point  of  time  a  period  yet  to 
come,  in  which  felicity  was  expected,  there  was  some  happi- 
ness produced  by  hope^  Being  pressed  upon  this  subject, 
and  asked  if  he  really  was  of  opinion,  that  though,  in  gen- 
eral, happiness  was  very  rare  in  human  life,  a  man  was  not 
sometimes  happy  in  the  moment  that  was  present,  he  an- 
swered, 'Never,  but  when  he  is  drunk ^' 

He  urged  General  Oglethorpe  to  give  the  world  his  Life. 
He  said, '  I  know  no  man  whose  Life  would  be  more  inter- 
esting. If  I  were  furnished  with  materials,  I  should  be  very 
glad  to  write  it  \' 

Mr.  Scott'  of  Amwell's  Elegies  were  lying  in  the  room. 
Dr.  Johnson  observed, '  They  are  very  well ;  but  such  as 
twenty  people  might  write.'  Upon  this  I  took  occasion  to 
controvert  Horace's  maxim, 

' mcdiocribus  esse  poctis 

Noil  Di,  noil  honiines,  7 ion  concessere  coliimiice^ .^ 

'  '  Hope  springs  eternal  in  the  human  breast ; 

Man  never  is,  but  always  to  be  blest.' 

Essay  on  Man,  i.  95. 
^  'The  natural  flights  of  the  human  mind  are  not  from  pleasure  to 
pleasure,  but  from  hope  to  hope.'  The  Rambler,  No.  2.  See  post,  iii. 
61,  and  June  12,  1784.  Swift  defined  happiness  as  'a  perpetual  posses- 
sion of  being  well  deceived.'  Tale  of  a  Tub,  Sect,  ix.,  Swift's  Works, 
ed.  1803,  iii.  154.  =  Set  post,  March  29,  1776. 

*  The  General  seemed  unwilling  to  enter  upon  it  at  this  time ;  but 
upon  a  subsequent  occasion  he  communicated  to  me  a  number  of  par- 
ticulars, which  I  have  committed  to  writing;  but  I  was  not  sufficiently 
diligent  in  obtaining  more  from  him,  not  apprehending  that  his  friends 
were  so  soon  to  lose  him  ;  for,  notwithstanding  his  great  age,  he  was 
very  healthy  and  vigorous,  and  was  at  last  carried  off  by  a  violent  fe- 
ver, which  is  often  fatal  at  any  period  of  life.  Boswell. 
^  See  ante,  ii.  387. 
®  '  Mediocribus  esse  poetis 

Non  homines,  7ion  Di,  non  concessere  columnae.' 

For 


Aetat.  66.]  Good-Friday.  403 

For  here,  (I  observed,)  was  a  very  middle-rate  poet,  who 
pleased  many  readers,  and  therefore  poetry  of  a  middle  sort 
was  entitled  to  some  esteem  ;  nor  could  I  see  why  poetry 
should  not,  like  eveiy  thing  else,  have  different  gradations 
of  excellence,  and  consequently  of  value.  Johnson  repeated 
the  common  remark,  that, '  as  there  is  no  necessity  for  our 
having  poetry  at  all,  it  being  merely  a  luxury,  an  instrument 
of  pleasure,  it  can  have  no  value,  unless  when  exquisite  in 
its  kind.'  I  declared  myself  not  satisfied.  '  Why  then,  Sir, 
(said  he,)  Horace  and  you  must  settle  it.'  He  was  not  much 
in  the  humour  of  talking. 

No  more  of  his  conversation  for  some  days  appears  in 
my  journal',  except  that  when  a  gentleman  told  him  he  had 
bought  a  suit  of  lace  for  his  lady,  he  said, '  Well,  Sir,  you 
have  done  a  good  thing  and  a  wise  thing.'  *  I  have  done  a 
good  thing,  (said  the  gentleman,)  but  I  do  not  know  that 
I  have  done  a  wise  thing.'  Johnson.  'Yes,  Sir;  no  mon- 
ey is  better  spent  than  what  is  laid  out  for  domestick 
satisfaction.  A  man  is  pleased  that  his  wife  is  drest 
as  well  as  other  people ;  and  a  wife  is  pleased  that  she  is 
drest.' 

On  Friday,  April  14,  being  Good-Friday,  I  repaired  to  him 
in  the  morning,  according  to  my  usual  custom  on  that  day, 
and  breakfasted  with  him.      I  observed  that  he  fasted  so 


'  But  God  and  man,  and  letter'd  post  denies 
That  poets  ever  are  of  middling  size.' 

Francis,  Horace,  Ars  Pod.  1.  372. 
'  Why  he  failed  to  keep  his  journal  may  be  guessed  from  his  letter 
to  Temple  : — '  I  am,'  he  wrote  on  April  17, '  indeed  enjoying  this  me- 
tropolis to  the  full,  according  to  my  taste,  except  that  I  cannot,  I  see, 
have  a  plenary  indulgence  from  you  for  Asiatic  multiplicity.  Be  not 
afraid  of  me,  except  when  I  take  too  much  claret ;  and  then  indeed 
there  is  2.  furor  brcvis  as  dangerous  as  anger. ...  I  have  rather  had  too 
much  dissipation  since  I  came  last  to  town.  I  try  to  keep  a  journal, 
and  shall  show  you  that  I  have  done  tolerably :  but  it  is  hardly  credi- 
ble what  ground  I  go  over,  and  what  a  variety  of  men  and  manners  I 
contemplate  in  a  day ;  and  all  the  time  I  myself  am  pars  magna,  for 
my  exuberant  spirits  will  not  let  me  listen  enough.'  Letters  of  Bos- 
Tuell,  pp.  1 87-9. 

very 


404  Weakitess  of  the  government.         [a.d.  1775. 

very  strictly  ',  that  he  did  not  even  taste  bread,  and  took  no 
milk  with  his  tea ;  I  suppose  because  it  is  a  kind  of  animal 
food. 

He  entered  upon  the  state  of  the  nation,  and  thus  dis- 
coursed :  '  Sir,  the  great  misfortune  now  is,  that  government 
has  too  little  power.  All  that  it  has  to  bestow  must  of  ne- 
cessity be  given  to  support  itself ;  so  that  it  cannot  reward 
merit.  No  man,  for  instance,  can  now  be  made  a  Bishop 
for  his  learning  and  piety  °;  his  only  chance  for  promotion 
is  his  being  connected  with  somebody  who  has  parliament- 
ary interest.  Our  several  ministries  in  this  reign  have  out- 
bid each  other  in  concessions  to  the  people.  Lord  Bute, 
though  a  very  honourable  man, — a  man  who  meant  well, — a 
man  who  had  his  blood  full  of  prerogative, — was  a  theoreti- 
cal statesman, — a  book-minister^ — and  thought  this  coun- 
try could  be  governed  by  the  influence  of  the  Crown  alone. 
Then,  Sir,  he  gave  up  a  great  deal.  He  advised  the  King 
to  agree  that  the  Judges  should  hold  their  places  for  life, 
instead  of  losing  them  at  the  accession  of  a  new  King.  Lord 
Bute,  I  suppose,  thought  to  make  the  King  popular  by  this 
concession  ;  but  the  people  never  minded  it ;  and  it  was  a 
most  impolitick  measure.  There  is  no  reason  why  a  Judge 
should  hold  his  office  for  life,  more  than  any  other  per- 
son in  publick  trust.  A  Judge  may  be  partial  otherwise 
than  to  the  Crown :  we  have  seen  Judges  partial  to  the 

'  Johnson,  in  The  Rambler,  No.  no,  published  on  Easter  Eve,  1751, 
thus  justifies  fasting : — '  Austerity  is  the  proper  antidote  to  indulgence ; 
the  diseases  of  mind  as  well  as  body  are  cured  by  contraries,  and  to 
contraries  we  should  readily  have  recourse  if  we  dreaded  guilt  as  we 
dread  pain.' 

-  From  this  too  just  observation  there  are  some  eminent  excep- 
tions. BoswELL.  '  Dr.  Johnson  said  : — "  Few  bishops  are  now  made 
for  their  learning.  To  be  a  bishop,  a  man  must  be  learned  in  a  learned 
age,  factious  in  a  factious  age,  but  always  of  eminence." '  Boswell's 
Hebrides,  Aug.  21, 1773. 

^  Lord  Shelburne  wrote  of  him  : — '  He  panted  for  the  Treasury,  hav- 
ing a  notion  that  the  King  and  he  understood  it  from  what  they  had 
read  about  revenue  and  funds  while  they  were  at  Kew.'  Fitzmaurice's 
Shelburiie,  i.  141. 

populace. 


Aetat.  66.]        Lord  Butes  popular  measures.  405 

populace".  A  Judge  may  become  corrupt,  and  yet  there  may 
not  be  legal  evidence  against  him.  A  Judge  may  become 
f reward  from  age.  A  Judge  may  grow  unfit  for  his  office 
in  many  ways.  It  was  desirable  that  there  should  be  a 
possibility  of  being  delivered  from  him  by  a  new  King. 
That  is  now  gone  by  an  act  of  Parliament  ex  gratia  of  the 
Crown  ^  Lord  Bute  advised  the  King  to  give  up  a  very 
large  sum  of  money^  for  which  nobody  thanked  him.     It 

'  Chief  Justice  Pratt  (afterwards  Lord  Camden)  became  popular  by 
his  conduct  as  a  judge  in  Wiltces's  case.  In  1764  he  received  the  free- 
dom of  the  guild  of  merchants  in  Dublin  in  a  gold  box,  and  from  Exe- 
ter the  freedom  of  the  city.  The  city  of  London  gave  him  its  freedom 
in  a  gold  box,  and  had  his  portrait  painted  by  Reynolds.  Cent.  Mag. 
1764,  pp.  44,  96,  144.     See  ante,  ii.  359,  note  2. 

^  The  King,  on  March  3,  1761,  recommended  this  measure  to  Par- 
liament. Pari.  Hist.  xv.  1007.  'This,'  writes  Horace  Walpole,  'was 
one  of  Lord  Bute's  strokes  of  pedantry.  The  tenure  of  the  judges 
had  formerly  been  a  popular  topic ;  and  had  been  secured,  as  far  as 
was  necessar>'.  He  thought  this  trifling  addition  would  be  popular 
now,  when  nobody  thought  or  cared  about  it.'  Memoirs  of  the  Reign 
of  George  III,  i.  41 . 

^  The  money  arising  from  the  property  of  the  prizes  taken  before 
the  declaration  of  war,  which  were  given  to  his  Majesty  by  the  peace 
of  Paris,  and  amounted  to  upwards  of  _;^7oo,ooo,  and  from  the  lands  in 
the  ceded  islands,  which  were  estimated  at  ^200,000  more.  Surely 
there  was  a  noble  munificence  in  this  gift  from  a  Monarch  to  his  peo- 
ple. And  let  it  be  remembered,  that  during  the  Earl  of  Bute's  admin- 
istration, the  King  was  graciously  pleased  to  give  up  the  hereditary 
revenues  of  the  Crown,  and  to  accept,  instead  of  them,  of  the  limited 
sum  of  ;^8oo,ooo  a  year ;  upon  which  Blackstone  observes,  that '  The 
hereditary  revenues,  being  put  under  the  same  management  as  the 
other  branches  of  the  publick  patrimony,  will  produce  more,  and  be 
better  collected  than  heretofore ;  and  the  publick  is  a  gainer  of  up- 
wards of  £100,000  per  annum  by  this  disinterested  bounty  of  his  Maj- 
esty.' BookLchap.  viii.p.  330.  Boswell.  hordBoWn^hrokc  {Works, 
iii.  286),  about  the  year  1 734,  pointed  out  that '  if  the  funds  appropriated 
produce  the  double  of  that  immense  revenue  of  ^jTSocooo  a  year,  which 
hath  been  so  liberally  given  the  King  for  life,  the  whole  is  his  without 
account ;  but  if  they  fail  in  any  degree  to  produce  it,  the  entire  national 
fund  is  engaged  to  make  up  the  difference.'  Blackstone  (edit,  of  1778, 
i.  331)  says  : — '  £800,000  being  found  insufficient,  was  increased  in  1777 
to  £900,000.'     He  adds, '  the  public  is  still  a  gainer  of  near  £100,000.' 

was 


4o6  Lord  Butes  Scotch  favoiirites.       [a.d.  1775. 

was  of  consequence  to  the  King,  but  nothing  to  the  pub- 
lick,  among  whom  it  was  divided.  When  I  say  Lord  Bute 
advised,  I  mean,  that  such  acts  were  done  when  he  was  min- 
ister, and  we  are  to  suppose  that  he  advised  them. — Lord 
Bute  shewed  an  undue  partiality  to  Scotchmen.  He  turned 
out  Dr.  Nichols  \  a  very  eminent  man,  from  being  physician 
to  the  King,  to  make  room  for  one  of  his  countrymen,  a 
man  very  low  in  his  profession".  He  had  *'^*********3 
and  *****  to  go  on  errands  for  him.  He  had  occasion  for 
people  to  go  on  errands  for  him ;  but  he  should  not  have  had 
Scotchmen  ;  and,  certainly,  he  should  not  have  suffered  them 
to  have  access  to  him  before  the  first  people  in  England.' 

*  See.  post,  iii.  i86. 

^  Lord  Eldon  says  that  Dundas, '  in  broken  phrases,'  asked  the  King 
to  confer  a  baronetcy  on  '  an  eminent  Scotch  apothecary  who  had  got 
from  Scotland  the  degree  of  M.  D.  The  King  said; — "  What,  what, 
is  that  all  ?  It  shall  be  done.  I  was  afraid  you  meant  to  ask  me  to 
make  the  Scotch  apothecary  a  physician — that's  more  difficult."  '  He 
added : — '  They  may  make  as  many  Scotch  apothecaries  Baronets  as 
they  please,  but  I  shall  die  by  the  College.'  Twiss's  Eldon,  ii.  354.  A 
Dr.  Duncan,  says  Mr.  Croker,  was  appointed  physician  to  the  King  in 
1 760.  Croker's  Boswell,  p.  448.  A  doctor  of  the  same  name,  and  no 
doubt  the  same  man,  was  made  a  baronet  in  Aug.  1764.  Jesse's  Sel- 
wyn,  i.  287. 

^  Wedderburne,  afterwards  Lord  Chancellor  Loughborough,  and 
Earl  of  Rosslyn.  One  of  his  'errands'  had  been  to  bring  Johnson 
bills  in  payment  of  his  first  quarter's  pension.     See  ante,  i.  435. 

*  Home,  the  author  of  Douglas.  Boswell  says  that '  Home  showed 
the  Lord  Chief  Baron  Orde  a  pair  of  pumps  he  had  on,  and  desired 
his  lordship  to  observe  how  well  they  were  made,  telling  him  at  the 
same  time  that  they  had  been  made  for  Lord  Bute,  but  were  rather 
too  little  for  him,  so  his  lordship  had  made  John  a  present  of  them. 
"  I  think,"  said  the  Lord  Chief  Baron,  "you  have  taken  the  measure 
of  Lord  Bute's  foot." '  Boswdliatia,  p.  252.  Dr.  A.  Carlyle  {Auto. 
P-  335)  writes : — '  With  Robertson  and  Home  in  London  I  passed  the 
time  very  agreeably ;  for  though  Home  was  now  [1758]  entirely  at  the 
command  of  Lord  Bute,  whose  nod  made  him  break  every  engage- 
ment— for  it  was  not  given  above  an  hour  or  two  before  dinner — yet, 
as  he  was  sometimes  at  liberty  when  the  noble  lord  was  to  dine 
abroad,  like  a  horse  loosened  from  his  stake,  he  was  more  sportful 
than  usual.' 

I  told 


Aetat.  6G.]  No  Prime  Minister.  407 

I  told  him,  that  the  admission  of  one  of  them  before  the 
first  people  in  England,  which  had  given  the  greatest  of- 
fence, was  no  more  than  what  happens  at  every  minister's 
leve'e,  where  those  who  attend  are  admitted  in  the  order 
that  they  have  come,  which  is  better  than  admitting  them 
according  to  their  rank ;  for  if  that  were  to  be  the  rule,  a 
man  who  has  waited  all  the  morning  might  have  the  mor- 
tification to  see  a  peer,  newly  come,  go  in  before  him,  and 
keep  him  waiting  still.  Johnson.  '  True,  Sir ;  but  **** 
should  not  have  come  to  the  levee,  to  be  in  the  way  of  peo- 
ple of  consequence.  He  saw  Lord  Bute  at  all  times ;  and 
could  have  said  what  he  had  to  say  at  any  time,  as  well  as 
at  the  levee.  There  is  now  no  Prime  Minister:  there  is 
only  an  agent  for  government  in  the  House  of  Commons'. 
We  are  governed  by  the  Cabinet :  but  there  is  no  one  head 
there  since  Sir  Robert  Walpole's  time.'  BOSWELL.  '  What 
then,  Sir,  is  the  use  of  Parliament?'  JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir, 
Parliament  is  a  larger  council  to  the  King ;  and  the  advan- 
tage of  such  a  council  is,  having  a  great  number  of  men  of 
property  concerned  in  the  legislature,  Avho,  for  their  own  in- 
terest, will  not  consent  to  bad  laws.  And  you  must  have 
observed,  Sir,  that  administration  is  feeble  and  timid,  and 
cannot  act  with  that  authority  and  resolution  which  is  nec- 
essary. Were  I  in  power,  I  would  turn  out  every  man  who 
dared  to  oppose  me.  Government  has  the  distribution  of 
ofifices,  that  it  may  be  enabled  to  maintain  its  authority^.' 

'  Lord  North  was  merely  the  King's  agent.  The  King  was  really 
his  own  minister  at  this  time,  though  he  had  no  seat  in  his  own  cabi- 
net councils. 

■■^  Only  thirty-four  years  earlier,  on  the  motion  in  the  Lords  for  the 
removal  of  Walpole,  the  Duke  of  Argyle  said :  —  'If  my  father  or 
brother  took  upon  him  the  office  of  a  sole  minister,  I  would  oppose 
it  as  inconsistent  with  the  constitution,  as  a  high  crime  and  misde- 
meanour.    I  appeal  to  your  consciences  whether  he  [WalpoleJ  hath 

not  done  this He  hath  turned  out  men  lately  for  difTering  with 

him.'  Lord  Chancellor  Hardwicke  replied :— '  A  sole  minister  is  so 
illegal  an  office  that  it  is  none.  Yet  a  noble  lord  says,  Superior  re- 
spondeat, which  is  laying  down  a  rule  for  a  prime  minister ;  whereas 
the  noble   Duke  was  against  any.'     The  Seeker  MS.  Pari.  Hist.  xi. 

'  Lord 


4o8  The  immensity  of  London.  [a.d.  1775. 

'  Lord  Bute,  (he  added,)  took  down  too  fast,  without  build- 
ing up  something  new.'  BOSWELL.  '  Because,  Sir,  he  found 
a  rotten  building.  The  poHtical  coach  was  drawn  by  a  set 
of  bad  horses:  it  was  necessary  to  change  them.'  JOHN- 
SON. '  But  he  should  have  changed  them  one  by  one.' 

I  told  him  that  I  had  been  informed  by  Mr.  Orme ',  that 
many  parts  of  the  East-Indies  were  better  mapped  than  the 
Highlands  of  Scotland.  JOHNSON.  'That  a  country  may  be 
mapped,  it  must  be  travelled  over.'  '  Nay,  (said  I,  meaning 
to  laugh  with  him  at  one  of  his  prejudices,)  can't  you  say, 
it  is  not  wortJi  mapping?' 

As  we  walked  to  St.  Clement's  church,  and  saw  several 
shops  open  upon  this  most  solemn  fast-day  of  the  Christian 
w^orld,  I  remarked,  that  one  disadvantage  arising  from  the 
immensity  of  London,  was,  that  nobody  was  heeded  by  his 
neighbour;  there  was  no  fear  of  censure  for  not  observing 
Good-Friday,  as  it  ought  to  be  kept,  and  as  it  is  kept  in 
country-towns.  He  said,  it  was,  upon  the  whole,  very  well 
observed  even  in  London.  He,  however,  owned,  that  Lon- 
don was  too  large ;  but  added, '  It  is  nonsense  to  say  the 
head  is  too  big  for  the  body.  It  would  be  as  much  too  big, 
though  the  body  were  ever  so  large ;  that  is  to  say,  though 


1056-7.  In  the  Protest  against  the  rejection  of  the  motion  it  was 
stated : — '  We  are  persuaded  that  a  sole,  or  even  a  first  minister,  is 
an  officer  unknown  to  the  law  of  Britain,  &c.'  /(^.  p.  1215.  Johnson  re- 
ports the  Chancellor  as  saying : — '  It  has  not  been  yet  pretended  that 
he  assumes  the  title  oi prime  minister,  or,  indeed,  that  it  is  applied  to 
him  by  any  but  his  enemies. . . .  The  first  minister  can,  in  my  opinion, 
be  nothing  more  than  a  formidable  illusion,  which,  when  one  man 
thinks  he  has  seen  it,  he  shows  to  another,  as  easily  frighted  as  him- 
self,' &c.  Johnson's  Works,  x.  214-15.  In  his  Dictionary,  premier  is 
only  given  as  an  adjective,  and  prime  minister  is  not  given  at  all. 
When  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham  was  forming  his  cabinet  in  March, 
1782,  Burke  wrote  to  him: — 'Stand  firm  on  your  ground — but  one 
ministry.  I  trust  and  hope  that  your  lordship  will  not  let  one,  even 
but  one  branch  of  the  state  . . .  out  of  your  own  hands ;  or  those  which 
you  can  entirely  rely  on.'  Burke's  Corres.  ii.  462.  See  also  post,  iii. 
So,  April  I,  1 781,  Jan.  20,  1782,  and  April  10,  1783. 
^  See  a?ite,  ii.  343. 

the 


Aetat.66.]       An  evening  in  Johnsoris  shidy.  409 

the  country  were  ever  so  extensive.  It  has  no  similarity  to 
a  head  connected  with  a  body.' 

Dr.  Wetherell,  ]\Iaster  of  University  College,  Oxford,  ac- 
companied us  home  from  church  ;  and  after  he  was  gone, 
there  came  two  other  gentlemen,  one  of  whom  uttered  the 
commonplace  complaints,  that  by  the  increase  of  taxes, 
labour  would  be  dear,  other  nations  would  undersell  us,  and 
our  commerce  would  be  ruined.  Johnson,  (smiling.)  '  Never 
fear,  Sir.  Our  commerce  is  in  a  very  good  state  ;  and  sup- 
pose we  had  no  commerce  at  all,  we  could  live  very  well  on 
the  produce  of  our  own  country.'  I  cannot  omit  to  men- 
tion, that  I  never  knew  any  man  who  was  less  disposed  to 
be  querulous  than  Johnson.  Whether  the  subject  was  his 
own  situation,  or  the  state  of  the  publick,  or  the  state  of 
human  nature  in  general,  though  he  saw  the  evils,  his  mind 
was  turned  to  resolution,  and  never  to  whining  or  com- 
plaint '. 

We  went  again  to  St.  Clement's  in  the  afternoon.  He 
had  found  fault  with  the  preacher  in  the  morning  for  not 
choosing  a  text  adapted  to  the  day.  The  preacher  in  the 
afternoon  had  chosen  one  extremely  proper :  '  It  is  finished.' 

After  the  evening  service,  he  said, '  Come,  you  shall  go 
home  with  me,  and  sit  just  an  hour.'  But  he  was  better 
than  his  word  ;  for  after  we  had  drunk  tea^  with  Mrs.  Will- 
iams, he  asked  me  to  go  up  to  his  study  with  him,  where 
we  sat  a  long  while  together  in  a  serene  undisturbed  frame 
of  mind,  sometimes  in  silence,  and  sometimes  conversing,  as 
we  felt  ourselves  inclined,  or  more  properly  speaking,  as  Jie 
was  inclined ;  for  during  all  the  course  of  my  long  intima- 
cy with  him,  my  respectful  attention  never  abated,  and  my 
wish  to  hear  him  was  such,  that  I  constantly  watched  every 

'  '  As  he  liberally  confessed  that  all  his  own  disappointments  pro- 
ceeded from  himself,  he  hated  to  hear  others  complain  of  general  in- 
justice.' Piozzi's  ylncc.  p.  251.  Sec  pos/,  end  of  May,  1 781,  and  March 
23,1783. 

'  '  Boswcll  and  I  went  to  church,  but  came  very  late.  We  then  took 
tea,  by  BoswcU's  desire ;  and  I  eat  one  bun,  I  think,  that  I  might  not 
seem  to  fast  ostentatiously.'     Pr.  and  Mai.  p.  138. 

dawnincf 


4IO  The  Temple  of  Fame.  [a.d.  1775. 

dawning  of  communication  from  that  great  and  illuminated 
mind. 

He  observed,  '  All  knowledge  is  of  itself  of  some  value. 
There  is  nothing  so  minute  or  inconsiderable,  that  I  would 
not  rather  know  it  than  not.  In  the  same  manner,  all  pow- 
er, of  whatever  sort,  is  of  itself  desirable.  A  man  would  not 
submit  to  learn  to  hem  a  ruffle,  of  his  wife,  or  his  wife's 
maid  ;  but  if  a  mere  wish  could  attain  it,  he  would  rather 
wish  to  be  able  to  hem  a  ruffle.' 

He  again  advised  me  to  keep  a  journal'  fully  and  minute- 
ly, but  not  to  mention  such  trifles  as,  that  meat  was  too 
much  or  too  little  done,  or  that  the  weather  was  fair  or 
rainy.  He  had,  till  very  near  his  death,  a  contempt  for  the 
notion  that  the  weather  affects  the  human  frame". 

I  told  him  that  our  friend  Goldsmith  had  said  to  me,  that 
he  had  come  too  late  into  the  world,  for  that  Pope  and  other 
poets  had  taken  up  the  places  in  the  Temple  of  Fame ;  so 
that,  as  but  a  few  at  any  period  can  possess  poetical  reputa- 
tion, a  man  of  genius  can  now  hardly  acquire  it.  JOHNSON. 
'  That  is  one  of  the  most  sensible  things  I  have  ever  heard 
of  Goldsmith  \     It  is  difflcult  to  get  literary  fame,  and  it  is 

'  See  ante,  i.  501.  ^  See  ante,  i.  384. 

'  The  following  passages  shew  that  the  thought,  or  something  like 
it,  was  not  new  to  Johnson  : — '  Bruyere  declares  that  we  are  come 
into  tlie  world  too  late  to  produce  anything  new,  that  nature  and  life 
are  preoccupied,  and  that  description  and  sentiment  have  been  long 
exhausted.'  The  Rambler,  No.  143.  '  Some  advantage  the  ancients 
might  gain  merely  by  priority,  which  put  them  in  possession  of  the 
most  natural  sentiments,  and  left  us  nothing  but  servile  repetition  or 
forced  conceits.'  lb.  No.  169.  '  My  earlier  predecessors  had  the  whole 
field  of  life  before  them,  untrodden  and  unsurveyed ;  characters  of 
every  kind  shot  up  in  their  way,  and  those  of  the  most  luxuriant 
growth,  or  most  conspicuous  colours,  were  naturally  cropt  by  the  first 
sickle.  They  that  follow  are  forced  to  peep  into  neglected  corners.' 
The  Idler,  No.  3.  '  The  first  writers  took  possession  of  the  most  strik- 
ing objects  for  description,  and  the  most  probable  occurrences  for 
fiction.'  Rasselas,  ch.  x.  Some  years  later  he  wrote  : — '  Whatever  can 
happen  to  man  has  happened  so  often  that  little  remains  for  fancy  or 
invention.'  /^Fbr/-^,  vii.  311.  See  also  The  Rambler,  l^o.Z6.  In  The 
Adventurer,  No.  95,  he  wrote  : — '  The  complaint  that  all  topicks  are 

every 


Aetat,  66.]  Infidelity.  411 

every  day  growing  more  difficult.  Ah,  Sir,  that  should  make 
a  man  think  of  securing  happiness  in  another  world,  which 
all  who  try  sincerely  for  it  may  attain.  In  comparison  of 
that,  how  little  are  all  other  things !  The  belief  of  immor- 
tality is  impressed  upon  all  men,  and  all  men  act  under  an 
impression  of  it,  however  they  may  talk,  and  though,  per- 
haps, they  may  be  scarcely  sensible  of  it.'  I  said,  it  ap- 
peared to  me  that  some  people  had  not  the  least  notion  of 
immortality ;  and  I  mentioned  a  distinguished  gentleman 
of  our  acquaintance.  JOHNSON.  *  Sir,  if  it  were  not  for  the 
notion  of  immortality,  he  would  cut  a  throat  to  fill  his  pock- 
ets.' When  I  quoted  this  to  Beauclerk,  who  knew  much 
more  of  the  gentleman  than  we  did,  he  said,  in  his  acid  man- 
ner, '  He  w^ould  cut  a  throat  to  fill  his  pockets,  if  it  were  not 
for  fear  of  being  hanged.' 

Dr.  Johnson  proceeded :  '  Sir,  there  is  a  great  cry  about 
infidelity";  but  there  are,  in  reality,  very  few^  infidels,  I 
have  heard  a  person,  originally  a  Quaker,  but  now,  I  am 
afraid,  a  Deist,  say,  that  he  did  not  believe  there  were,  in  all 
England,  above  two  hundred  infidels.' 

He  was  pleased  to  say, '  If  you  come  to  settle  here,  we 
\\\\\  have  one  day  in  the  week  on  which  we  will  meet  by 
ourselves.  That  is  the  happiest  conversation  where  there  is 
no  competition,  no  vanity,  but  a  calm  quiet  interchange  of 
sentiments^'      In  his  private  register  this  evening  is  thus 

preoccupied  is  nothing  more  than  the  murmur  of  ignorance  or  idle- 
ness.' See  post,  under  Aug.  29,  1783.  Dr.  Warton  {Essay  on  Pope, 
i.  88)  says  that '  St.  Jerome  relates  that  Donatus,  explaining  that  pas- 
sage in  Terence,  Nihil  est  dictum  quod  non  sit  dictum  prius,  railed  at 
the  ancients  for  takmg  from  him  his  best  thoughts.  Percant  qui  ante 
nos  nostra  dixerunt.' 

'  Warburton,  in  the  Dedication  of  his  Divine  Legation  to  the  Free- 
thinkers (vol.  i.  p.  ii.),  says  : — '  Nothing,  I  believe,  strikes  the  serious 
observer  with  more  surprize,  in  this  age  of  novelties,  than  that  strange 
propensity  to  infidehty,  so  visible  in  men  of  almost  every  condition : 
amongst  whom  the  advocates  of  Deism  are  received  with  all  the 
applauses  due  to  the  inventers  of  the  arts  of  life,  or  the  deliverers  of 
oppressed  and  injured  nations.'     See  ante,  ii.  93. 

"  In  The  Rambler,  No.  09,  Johnson  writes  of  '  that  interchange  of 

marked, 


412  Easter  Day.  [a.d.  1775, 

marked, '  Boswell  sat  with  mc  till  night ;  we  had  some  seri- 
ous talk'.'  It  also  appears  from  the  same  record,  that  after 
I  left  him  he  was  occupied  in  religious  duties,  in  '  giving 
Francis,  his  servant,  some  directions  for  preparation  to  com- 
municate ;  in  reviewing  his  life,  and  resolving  on  better 
conduct  °.'  The  humility  and  piety  which  he  discovers  on 
such  occasions,  is  truely  edifying.  No  saint,  however,  in  the 
course  of  his  religious  warfare,  was  more  sensible  of  the  un- 
happy failure  of  pious  resolves,  than  Johnson.  He  said  one 
day,  talking  to  an  acquaintance  on  this  subject, '  Sir,  Hell  is 
paved  with  good  intentions'.' 

On  Sunday,  April  i6,  being  Easter  Day,  after  having  at- 
tended the  solemn  service  at  St.  Paul's*,  I  dined  with  Dr. 
Johnson  and  Mrs.  Williams.  I  maintained  that  Horace  was 
wrong  in  placing  happiness  in  Nil  admirari^,  for  that   I 

thoughts  which  is  practised  in  free  and  easy  conversation,  where 
suspicion  is  banished  by  experience,  and  emulation  by  benevolence ; 
where  every  man  speaks  with  no  other  restraint  than  unwillingness 
to  offend,  and  hears  with  no  other  disposition  than  desire  to  be 
pleased.'  In  T?ie  Idler,  No.  34,  he  says  '  that  companion  will  be  often- 
est  welcome  whose  talk  flows  out  with  inoffensive  copiousness  and 
unenvied  insipidity.*  He  wrote  to  Mrs.  Thrale :  —  'Such  tattle  as 
filled  your  last  sweet  letter  prevents  one  great  inconvenience  of  ab- 
sence, that  of  returning  home  a  stranger  and  an  inquirer.  The  varia- 
tions of  life  consist  of  little  things.  Important  innovations  are  soon 
heard,  and  easily  understood.  Men  that  meet  to  talk  of  physicks  or 
metaphysicks,  or  law  or  history,  may  be  immediately  acquainted.  We 
look  at  each  other  in  silence,  only  for  want  of  petty  talk  upon  slight 
occurrences.'     Pio::zi  Letters,  \.  354. 

^  Pr.and  Med.T^.iT,^.     Boswell. 

'  This  line  is  not,  as  appears,  a  quotation,  but  an  abstract  of  p.  139 
of  Pr.  and  Med. 

^  This  is  a  proverbial  sentence.  '  Hell,'  says  Herbert, '  is  full  of  good 
meanings  and  wishings.'  Jaciila  Prudentttvi,  p.  11,  edit.  165 1.  M  ALONE. 

^  Boswell  wrote  to  Temple  : — '  I  have  only  to  tell  you,  as  my  divine, 
that  I  yesterday  received  the  holy  sacrament  in  St.  Paul's  Church,  and 
was  exalted  in  piety.'  It  was  in  the  same  letter  that  he  mentioned 
'  Asiatic  multiplicity '  (ante,  ii.  403,  note).     Letters  of  Boswell,  p.  189. 

*  '  Nil  admirari  prope  res  est  una,  Numici, 

Solaque,  quae  possit  facere  et  servare  beatum.' 

Horace,  Epis.  i.  6.  i. 
thought 


Aetat.66.]  Admiration  a^td  judgement.  413 

thought  admiration  one  of  the  most  agreeable  of  all  our 
feelings ' ;  and  I  regretted  that  I  had  lost  much  of  my  dis- 
position to  admire,  which  people  generally  do  as  they  ad- 
vance in  life.  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  as  a  man  advances  in  life,  he 
gets  what  is  better  than  admiration — judgement,  to  estimate 
things  at  their  true  value.'  I  still  insisted  that  admiration 
was  more  pleasing  than  judgement,  as  love  is  more  pleasing 
than  friendship.  The  feeling  of  friendship  is  like  that  of 
being  comfortably  filled  with  roast  beef;  love,  like  being 
enlivened  with  champagne.  JOHNSON.  *  No,  Sir ;  admira- 
tion and  love  are  like  being  intoxicated  with  champagne ; 
judgement  and  friendship  like  being  enlivened.  Waller  has 
hit  upon  the  same  thought  with  you°:  but  I  don't  believe 
you  have  borrowed  from  Waller.  I  wish  you  would  enable 
yourself  to  borrow  more '.' 

He  then  took  occasion  to  enlarge  on  the  advantages  of 
reading,  and  combated  the  idle  superficial  notion,  that  knowl- 
edge enough  may  be  acquired  in  conversation.  '  The  foun- 
dation, (said  he,)  must  be  laid  by  reading.  General  principles 
must  be  had  from  books,  which,  however,  must  be  brought 

'  Not  to  admire  is  all  the  art  I  know, 
To  make  men  happy  and  to  keep  them  so.' 

Pope's  Imitations,  adapted  from  Creech. 
^  '  We  live  by  Admiration,  Hope,  and  Love ; 

And  even  as  these  are  well  and  wisely  fixed, 
In  dignity  of  being  we  ascend.' 

Wordsworth's  Works,  ed.  1857,  vi.  135. 
^  '  Amoret's  as  sweet  and  good. 

As  the  most  delicious  food ; 
Which  but  tasted  does  impart 
Life  and  gladness  to  the  heart. 
Sacharissa's  beauty's  wine, 
Which  to  madness  does  incline ; 
Such  a  liquor  as  no  brain 
That  is  mortal  can  sustain.' 

Waller's  EpistUs,  xii.     BOSWKI.I,. 
'  Not  that  he  would  have  wished  Boswell  '  to  talk  from  books.' 
•  You  and  \,'  he  once  said  to  him, '  do  not  talk  from  books.'    Boswell's 
Hebrides,  Nov.  3,  1773.     See  post,  iii.  123,  note  i,  for  Boswell's  want  of 
learning. 

to 


414  ^^'  Cambridge's  villa.  [a.d.  1775. 

to  the  test  of  real  life.  In  conversation  you  never  get  a 
system.  What  is  said  upon  a  subject  is  to  be  gathered 
from  a  hundred  people.  The  parts  of  a  truth,  which  a  man 
gets  thus,  are  at  such  a  distance  from  each  other  that  he 
never  attains  to  a  full  view.' 

'To  Bennet  Langton,  Esq. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  I  have  enquired  more  minutely  about  the  medicine  for  the 
rheumatism,  which  I  am  sorry  to  hear  that  you  still  want.  The 
receipt  is  this : 

'Take  equal  quantities  of  flour  of  sulphur,  zndjloiir  of  mustard- 
seed,  make  them  an  electuary  with  honey  or  treacle ;  and  take  a 
bolus  as  big  as  a  nutmeg  several  times  a  day,  as  you  can  bear  it : 
drinking  after  it  a  quarter  of  a  pint  of  the  infusion  of  the  root  of 
Lovage. 

'  Lovage,  in  Ray's  JVojnenclature,  is  Levisticum  :  perhaps  the  Bot- 
anists may  know  the  Latin  name. 

'  Of  this  medicine  I  pretend  not  to  judge.  There  is  all  the  ap- 
pearance of  its  efficacy,  which  a  single  instance  can  afford  :  the 
patient  was  very  old,  the  pain  very  violent,  and  the  relief,  I  think, 
speedy  and  lasting. 

'  My  opinion  of  alterative  medicine  is  not  high,  but  quid  tentasse 
nocebit  ?  if  it  does  harm,  or  does  no  good,  it  may  be  omitted ;  but 
that  it  may  do  good,  you  have,  I  hope,  reason  to  think  is  desired  by, 
'  Sir,  your  most  affectionate, 

'  Humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'April  17, 1775.' 

On  Tuesday,  April  18,  he  and  I  were  engaged  to  go  with 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  to  dine  with  Mr.  Cambridge ',  at  his 
beautiful  villa  on  the  banks  of  the  Thames,  near  Twicken- 
ham. Dr.  Johnson's  tardiness  was  such,  that  Sir  Joshua, 
who  had  an  appointment  at  Richmond,  early  in  the  day, 
was  obliged  to  go  by  himself  on  horseback,  leaving  his  coach 
to  Johnson  and  me.  Johnson  was  in  such  good  spirits,  that 
every  thing  seemed  to  please  him  as  we  drove  along. 

Our  conversation   turned   on  a  variety  of  subjects.     He 

^  Seepos/,  under  March  30,  1783. 

thought 


Aetat.  66.]     Johison  a  good-humoured  fellow.  415 

thought  portrait -painting  an  improper  employment  for  a 
woman'.  '  Publick  practice  of  any  art,  (he  observed,)  and 
staring  in  men's  faces,  is  very  indelicate  in  a  female.'  I  hap- 
pened to  start  a  question,  whether,  when  a  man  knows  that 
some  of  his  intimate  friends  are  invited  to  the  house  of 
another  friend,  with  whom  they  are  all  equally  intimate,  he 
may  join  them  without  an  invitation.  JOHNSON.  '  No,  Sir; 
he  is  not  to  go  when  he  is  not  invited.  They  may  be  in- 
vited on  purpose  to  abuse  him  '  (smiling). 

As  a  curious  instance  how  little  a  man  knows,  or  wishes 
to  know,  his  own  character  in  the  world,  or,  rather,  as  a  con- 
vincing proof  that  Johnson's  roughness  was  only  external, 
and  did  not  proceed  from  his  heart,  I  insert  the  following 
dialogue.  JOHNSON.  '  It  is  wonderful.  Sir,  how  rare  a  qual- 
ity good  humour  is  in  life.  We  meet  with  very  few  good 
humoured  men.'  I  mentioned  four  of  our  friends',  none 
of  whom  he  would  allow  to  be  good  humoured.  One  was 
acid,  another  was  inuddy"^,  and  to  the  others  he  had  objec- 
tions which  have  escaped  me.  Then,  shaking  his  head  and 
stretching  himself  at  ease  in  the  coach,  and  smiling  with 
much  complacency,  he  turned  to  me  and  said, '  I  look  upon 
Diysclf  as  a  good  humoured  fellow.'      The  epithet  fclioiv, 


'  Yet  he  sat  to  Miss  Reynolds,  as  he  tells  us,  perhaps  ten  times 
(/<?j/,  under  June  17,  1783), and  '  Miss  Reynolds's  mind,'  he  said, 'was 
very  near  to  purity  itself.'  Northcote's  Reynolds,  i.  80.  Eight  years 
later  Barr}',  in  his  Analysis  {post.  May,  1783,  note),  said  : — '  Our  females 
are  totally,  shamefully,  and  cruelly  neglected  in  the  appropriation  of 
trades  and  employments.'     Barry's  Works,  ii.  333. 

-  The  four  most  likely  to  be  mentioned  would  be,  I  think,  Beau- 
clerk,  Garrick,  Langton,  and  Reynolds.  On  p.  359,  Boswell  mentions 
Beauclerk's '  acid  manner.' 

^  In  his  Dictio7iary,]o\in's>on  defines  viuddy  VlI,  cloudy  in  mind,didl\ 
and  quotes  The  Winter  s  Tale,  act  i.  sc.  2.  Wesley  {Journal,  ii.  10) 
writes  : — '  Honest,  muddy  M.  R.  conducted  me  to  his  house.'  Johnson 
{post,  March  22,  1776),  after  telling  how  an  acquaintance  of  his  drank, 
adds, '  not  that  he  gets  drunk,  for  he  is  a  very  pious  man,  but  he  is 
always  muddy:  It  seems  at  first  sight  unlikely  that  he  called  Reyn- 
olds muddy;  yet  three  months  earlier  he  had  written: — 'Reynolds 
has  taken  too  much  to  strong  liquor.'     See  a7ite,  ii.  334,  note  4. 

applied 


41 6  Learning  in  Scotland.  [a.d.  1775. 

applied  to  the  great  Lexicographer,  the  stately  Moralist,  the 
masterly  Critick,  as  if  he  had  been  Sam  Johnson,  a  mere 
pleasant  companion,  was  highly  diverting;  and  this  light 
notion  of  himself  struck  me  with  wonder.  I  answered,  also 
smiling, '  No,  no,  Sir;  that  will  not  do.  You  are  good  nat- 
ured,  but  not  good  humoured' :  you  are  irascible.  You  have 
not  patience  with  folly  and  absurdity.  I  believe  you  would 
pardon  them,  if  there  were  time  to  deprecate  your  ven- 
geance ;  but  punishment  follows  so  quick  after  sentence, 
that  they  cannot  escape.' 

I  had  brought  with  me  a  great  bundle  of  Scotch  maga- 
zines and  news-papers,  in  which  his  Journey  to  the  JVestem 
/stands  was  attacked  in  every  mode  ;  and  I  read  a  great  part 
of  them  to  him,  knowing  they  would  afford  him  entertain- 
ment. I  wish  the  writers  of  them  had  been  present :  they 
would  have  been  suf^ficiently  vexed.  One  ludicrous  imita- 
tion of  his  style,  by  Mr.  Maclaurin^  now  one  of  the  Scotch 
Judges,  with  the  title  of  Lord  Dreghorn,  was  distinguished 
by  him  from  the  rude  mass.  '  This,  (said  he,)  is  the  best. 
But  I  could  caricature  my  own  style  much  better  myself.' 
He  defended  his  remark  upon  the  general  insufficiency  of 
education  in  Scotland ;  and  confirmed  to  me  the  authen- 
ticity of  his  witty  saying  on  the  learning  of  the  Scotch ; — 
'  Their  learning  is  like  bread  in  a  besieged  town  :  every  man 
gets  a  little,  but  no  man  gets  a  full  meaP.'  '  There  is,  (said 
he,)  in  Scotland,  a  diffusion  of  learning,  a  certain  portion  of 
it  widely  and  thinly  spread.  A  merchant  there  has  as  much 
learning  as  one  of  their  clergy*,' 


'  In  T/ie  Rambler,  No.  72,  Johnson  defines  good-humour  as  'a  habit 
of  being  pleased ;  a  constant  and  perennial  softness  of  manner,  easi- 
ness of  approach,  and  suavity  of  disposition.' 

^  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  17,  1773. 

'  '  It  is  with  their  learning  as  with  provisions  in  a  besieged  town, 
every  one  has  a  mouthful,  and  no  one  a  bellyful.'  Johnson's  Worlcs 
(1787),  xi.  200. 

*  '  Men  bred  in  the  Universities  of  Scotland  cannot  be  expected  to 
be  often  decorated  with  the  splendours  of  ornamental  erudition,  but 
they  obtain  a  mediocrity  of  knowledge  between  learning  and  igno- 

He 


Aetat.  66.]  Isaac  Walton.  417 

He  talked  of  Isaac  Walton's  Lives,  which  was  one  of  his 
most  favourite  books.  Dr.  Donne's  Life,  he  said,  was  the 
most  perfect  of  them.  He  observed,  that '  it  was  wonderful 
that  Walton,  who  was  in  a  very  low  situation  in  life,  should 
have  been  familiarly  received  by  so  many  great  men,  and 
that  at  a  time  when  the  ranks  of  society  were  kept  more 
separate  than  they  are  now.'  He  supposed  that  Walton 
had  then  given  up  his  business  as  a  linen-draper  and  semp- 
ster,  and  was  only  an  authour' ;  and  added, '  that  he  was  a 
great  panegyrist.'  Boswell.  '  No  quality  will  get  a  man 
more  friends  than  a  disposition  to  admire  the  qualities  of 
others.  I  do  not  mean  flattery,  but  a  sincere  admiration.' 
Johnson.  '  Nay,  Sir,  flattery  pleases  very  generally".  In 
the  first  place,  the  flatterer  may  think  what  he  says  to  be 
true :  but,  in  the  second  place,  whether  he  thinks  so  or  not, 
he  certainly  thinks  those  whom  he  flatters  of  consequence 
enough  to  be  flattered.' 

No  sooner  had  we  made  our  bow  to  Mr.  Cambridge,  in  his 
library,  than  Johnson  ran  eagerly  to  one  side  of  the  room, 
intent  on  poring  over  the  backs  of  the  books ^     Sir  Joshua 

ranee,  not  inadequate  to  the  purposes  of  common  life,  which  is,  I  be- 
lieve, very  widely  diffused  among  them.'  Johnson's  Works,  ix.  158. 
Lord  Shelburne  said  that  the  Earl  of  Bute  had  '  a  great  deal  of  super- 
ficial knowledge,  such  as  is  commonly  to  be  met  with  in  France  and 
Scotland,  chiefly  upon  matters  of  natural  philosophy,  mines,  fossils,  a 
smattering  of  mechanics,  a  little  metaphysics,  and  a  very  false  taste  in 
everything.'  Fitzmaurice's  Shelbur7ie,  i.  139.  'A  gentleman  who  had 
heard  that  Bentley  was  born  in  tlie  north,  said  to  Porson :  "  Wasn't 
he  a  Scotchman  ?"  "  No,  Sir,"  replied  Porson,  "  Bentley  was  a  great 
Greek  scholar."  '     Rogers's  Table-  Talk,  p.  322. 

'  Walton  did  not  retire  from  business  till  1643.  But  in  1664,  Dr. 
King,  Bishop  of  Chichester,  in  a  letter  prefixed  to  his  Lives,  mentions 
his  having  been  familiarly  acquainted  with  him  for  forty  years ;  and 
in  1631  he  was  so  intimate  with  Dr.  Donne  that  he  was  one  of  the 
friends  who  attended  him  on  his  death-bed.  J.  Boswell,  jun.  His 
first  wife's  uncle  was  George  Cranmer,  the  grandson  of  the  Arch- 
bishop's brother.     His  second  wife  was  half-sister  of  Bishop  Ken. 

*  Johnson  himself,  as  Boswell  tells  us, '  was  somewhat  susceptible  of 
flattery.'     See/c.f/,  end  of  1784. 

'  The  first  time  he  dined  with  me,  he  was  shewn  into  my  book- 
II. — 27  observed, 


41 8  Pictures^  books ^  and  music.  [a.d.  1775. 

observed,  (aside,) '  He  runs  to  the  books,  as  I  do  to  the  pict- 
ures :  but  I  have  the  advantage.  I  can  see  much  more  of 
the  pictures  than  he  can  of  the  books.'  Mr.  Cambridge, 
upon  this,  politely  said,  '  Dr.  Johnson,  I  am  going,  with  your 
pardon,  to  accuse  myself,  for  I  have  the  same  custom  which 
I  perceive  you  have.  But  it  seems  odd  that  one  should 
have  such  a  desire  to  look  at  the  backs  of  books.'  Johnson, 
ever  ready  for  contest,  instantly  started  from  his  reverie, 
wheeled  about,  and  answered, '  Sir,  the  reason  is  very  plain. 
Knowledge  is  of  two  kinds.  We  know  a  subject  ourselves, 
or  we  know  where  we  can  find  information  upon  it.  When 
we  enquire  into  any  subject,  the  first  thing  we  have  to  do 
is  to  know  what  books  have  treated  of  it.     This  leads  us  to 

room,  and  instantly  pored  over  the  lettering  of  each  volume  within 
his  reach.  My  collection  of  books  is  very  miscellaneous,  and  I  feared 
there  might  be  some  among  them  that  he  would  not  like.  But  seeing 
the  number  of  volumes  very  considerable,  he  said, '  You  are  an  hon- 
est man,  to  have  formed  so  great  an  accumulation  of  knowledge.' 
BURNEY.  Miss  Burney  describes  this  visit  {Mejjiotrs  of  Dr.Burney, 
ii.  93)  : — '  Everybody  rose  to  do  him  honour;  and  he  returned  the  at- 
tention with  the  most  formal  courtesie.  My  father  whispered  to  him 
that  music  was  going  forward,  which  he  would  not,  my  father  thinks, 
have  found  out ;  and,  placing  him  on  the  best  seat  vacant,  told  his 
daughters  to  go  on  with  the  duet,  while  Dr.  Johnson,  intently  rolling 
towards  them  one  eye — for  they  say  he  does  not  see  with  the  other — 
made  a  grave  nod,  and  gave  a  dignified  motion  with  one  hand,  in 
silent  approvance  of  the  proceeding.'  He  was  next  introduced  to 
Miss  Burney,  but '  his  attention  was  not  to  be  drawn  off  two  minutes 
longer  from  the  books,  to  which  he  now  strided  his  way.  He  pored 
over  them  shelf  by  shelf,  almost  brushing  them  with  his  eye-lashes 
from  near  examination.  At  last,  fixing  upon  something  that  happened 
to  hit  his  fancy,  he  took  it  down,  and  standing  aloof  from  the  com- 
pany, which  he  seemed  clean  and  clear  to  forget,  he  began  very  com- 
posedly to  read  to  himself,  and  as  intently  as  if  he  had  been  alone  in 
his  own  study.  We  were  all  excessively  provoked,  for  we  were  lan- 
guishing, fretting,  expiring  to  hear  him  talk.'  Dr.  Burney,  taking  up 
something  that  Mrs.  Thrale  had  said,  ventured  to  ask  him  about 
Bach's  concert.  'The  Doctor,  comprehending  his  drift,  good-nat- 
uredly put  away  his  book,  and  see -sawing  with  a  very  humorous 
smile,  drolly  repeated,  "  Bach,  Sir?  Bach's  concert?  And  pray.  Sir, 
who  is  Bach  ?     Is  he  a  piper  ?"  ' 

look 


Aetat.  66.]   Johnsons  extraordinary  promptitude.        419 

look  at  catalogues,  and  the  backs  of  books  in  libraries.'  Sir 
Joshua  observed  to  me  the  extraordinary  promptitude  with 
which  Johnson  flew  upon  an  argument.  '  Yes,  (said  I,)  he 
has  no  formal  preparation,  no  flourishing  with  his  sword  ; 
he  is  through  your  body  in  an  instant'.' 

Johnson  was  here  solaced  with  an  elegant  entertainment, 
a  very  accomplished  family,  and  much  good  company ; 
among  whom  was  Mr.  Hards''  of  Salisbury,  who  paid  him 
many  compliments  on  his  Journey  to  the  Western  Islands. 

The  common  remark  as  to  the  utility  of  reading  history 
being  made; — JOHNSON.  'We  must  consider  how  very  little 
history  there  is;  I  mean  real  authentick  history.  That  cer- 
tain Kings  reigned,  and  certain  battles  were  fought,  we  can 
depend  upon  as  true;  but  all  the  colouring, all  the  philosophy 
of  history  is  conjecture'.'  BOSWELL.  '  Then,  Sir,  you  would 
reduce  all  history  to  no  better  than  an  almanack*,  a  mere 


'  Reynolds,  noting  down  '  such  qualities  as  Johnson's  works  cannot 
convey,'  says  that '  the  most  distinguished  was  his  possessing  a  mind 
which  was,  as  I  may  say,  always  ready  for  use.  Most  general  subjects 
had  undoubtedly  been  already  discussed  in  the  course  of  a  studious 
thinking  life.  In  this  respect  few  men  ever  came  better  prepared  into 
whatever  company  chance  might  throw  him ;  and  the  love  which  he  had 
to  society  gave  him  a  facility  in  the  practice  of  applying  his  knowledge 
of  the  matter  in  hand,  in  which  I  believe  he  was  never  exceeded  by  any 
man.'     Taylor's  Reynolds,  ii.  454.  ^  See  ante,  ii.  258. 

^  'Our  silly  things  called  Histories,'  wrote  Burke  {Corrcs.  i.  337). 
'The  Duke  of  Richmond,  Fox,  and  Burke,'  said  Rogers  {Table-Talk, 
p.  82),  'were  conversing  about  history,  philosophy,  and  poetry.  The 
Duke  said, "  I  prefer  history  to  philosophy  or  poetry,  because  history 
is  truth."  Both  Fox  and  Burke  disagreed  with  him  :  they  thought 
that  poetry  was  truth,  being  a  representation  of  human  nature.' 
Lord  Bolingbroke  had  said  {Works,  iii.  322)  that  the  child  'in  riper 
years  applies  himself  to  history,  or  to  that  which  he  takes  for  history, 
to  authorised  romance.' 

■•  Mr.  Plunket  made  a  great  sensation  in  the  House  of  Commons 
(Feb.  28,  1825)  by  saying  that  history,  if  not  judiciously  read, 'was  no 
better  than  an  old  almanack ' — which  Mcrcier  had  already  said  in  his 
Nouveau  Tableau  de  Paris — '  Malet  du  Pan's  and  such  like  histories 
of  the  revolution  are  no  better  than  an  old  almanack.'  Boswell,.we 
see,  had  anticipated  both.     Croker. 

chronological 


420  Early  habits.  [a.d.  1775. 

chronological  series  of  remarkable  events.'  Mr.  Gibbon,  who 
must  at  that  time  have  been  employed  upon  his  History\ 
of  which  he  published  the  first  volume  in  the  following  year, 
was  present ;  but  did  not  step  forth  in  defence  of  that  species 
of  writing.  He  probably  did  not  like  to  trust  himself  with 
Johnson'! 

Johnson  observed,  that  the  force  of  our  early  habits  was 
so  great,  that  though  reason  approved,  nay,  though  our 
senses  relished  a  different  course,  almost  every  man  returned 
to  them.  I  do  not  believe  there  is  any  observation  upon 
human  nature  better  founded  than  this;  and,  in  many  cases, 
it  is  a  very  painful  truth  ;  for  where  early  habits  have  been 
mean  and  wretched,  the  joy  and  elevation  resulting  from 
better  modes  of  life  must  be  damped  by  the  gloomy  con- 
sciousness of  being  under  an  almost  inevitable  doom  to  sink 
back  into  a  situation  which  we  recollect  with  disgust.  It 
surely  may  be  prevented,  by  constant  attention  and  unre- 
mitting exertion  to  establish  contrary  habits  of  superiour 
efficacy. 

The  Beggar  s  Opera,  and  the  common  question,  whether 
it  was  pernicious  in  its  effects,  having  been  introduced; — 


'  It  was  at  Rome  on  Oct.  1 5,  1764,  says  Gibbon  in  a  famous  passage, 
'  that  the  idea  of  writing  the  decHne  and  fall  of  the  city  first  started 
to  my  mind.'  It  was  not  till  towards  the  end  of  1772  that  he  '  under- 
took the  composition  of  the  first  volume.'  Gibbon's  Misc.  Works, 
i.  198,  217-9. 

'  See  ante,  ii.  398.  Boswell.  Gibbon,  when  with  Johnson,  perhaps 
felt  that  timidity  which  kept  him  silent  in  Parliament.  '  I  was  not 
armed  by  nature  and  education,'  he  writes, '  with  the  intrepid  energy 
of  mind  and  voice 

VinccjitcJii  strepitiis,  ct  nation  rebus  agendi's. 
Timidity  was  fortified  by  pride,  and  even  the  success  of  my  pen  dis- 
couraged the  trial  of  my  voice.'  Gibbon's  Misc.  Works,  i.  221.  Some 
years  before  he  entered  Parliament,  he  said  that  his  genius  was  '  bet- 
ter qualified  for  the  deliberate  compositions  of  the  closet,  than  for 
the  extemporary  discourses  of  the  Parliament.  An  unexpected  ob- 
jection would  disconcert  me ;  and  as  I  am  incapable  of  explaining  to 
others  what  I  do  not  thoroughly  understand  myself,  I  should  be  medi- 
tating while  I  ought  to  be  answering.'     Ih.  ii.  39. 

Johnson. 


Aetat.CG.]  ThE  BeGGAR'S  OpERA.  42 1 

Johnson.  *  As  to  this  matter,  which  has  been  very  much 
contested,  I  myself  am  of  opinion,  that  more  influence  has 
been  ascribed  to  Tlic  Beggar  s  Opera,  than  it  in  reaHty  ever 
had;  for  I  do  not  beheve  that  any  man  was  ever  made  a  rogue 
by  being  present  at  its  representation.  At  the  same  time  I 
do  not  deny  that  it  may  have  some  influence,  by  making 
the  character  of  a  rogue  familiar,  and  in  some  degree  pleas- 
ing'.' Then  collecting  himself  as  it  were,  to  give  a  heavy 
stroke :  '  There  is  in  it  such  a  labefactation  of  all  principles, 
as  may  be  injurious  to  morality.' 

While  he  pronounced  this  response,  we  sat  in  a  comical 
sort  of  restraint,  smothering  a  laugh,  which  we  were  afraid 
might  burst  out.  In  his  Life  of  Gay,  he  has  been  still  more 
decisive  as  to  the  inefficiency  of  TJie  Beggar's  Opera  in  cor- 
rupting society ^  But  I  have  ever  thought  somewhat  dif- 
ferently ;  for,  indeed,  not  only  are  the  gaiety  and  heroism  of 
a  highwayman  very  captivating  to  a  youthful  imagination, 
but  the  arguments  for  adventurous  depredation  are  so  plausi- 
ble, the  allusions  so  lively,  and  the  contrasts  with  the  ordi- 
nary and  more  painful  modes  of  acquiring  property  are  so 

'  A  very  eminent  physician,  whose  discernment  is  as  acute  and  pen- 
etrating in  judging  of  the  human  character  as  it  is  in  his  own  profes- 
sion, remarked  once  at  a  club  where  I  was,  that  a  lively  young  man, 
fond  of  pleasure,  and  without  money,  would  hardly  resist  a  solicita- 
tion from  his  mistress  to  go  upon  the  highway,  immediately  after  be- 
ing present  at  the  representation  of  The  Beggar  s  Opera.  I  have  been 
told  of  an  ingenious  observation  by  Mr.  Gibbon,  that  '  The  Beggar's 
Opera  may,  perhaps,  have  sometimes  increased  the  number  of  high- 
waymen ;  but  that  it  has  had  a  beneficial  effect  in  refining  that  class 
of  men,  making  them  less  ferocious,  more  polite,  in  short,  more  like 
gentlemen.'  Upon  this  Mr.  Courtenay  said,  that  'Gay  was  the  Or- 
pheus of  highwaymen.'     Boswell. 

"^  '  The  play  like  many  others  was  plainly  written  only  to  divert 
without  any  moral  purpose,  and  is  therefore  not  likely  to  do  good ; 
nor  can  it  be  conceived  without  more  speculation  than  life  requires 
or  admits  to  be  productive  of  much  evil.  Highwaymen  and  house- 
breakers seldom  frequent  the  play-house,  or  mingle  in  any  elegant 
diversion ;  nor  is  it  possible  for  any  one  to  imagine  that  he  may  rob 
with  safety,  because  he  sees  Macheath  reprieved  upon  the  stage.' 
Works,  viii.  68. 

artfully 


42  2  The  Beggar's  Opera.  [a.d.  1775. 

artfully  displayed,  that  it  requires  a  cool  and  strong  judge- 
ment to  resist  so  imposing  an  aggregate:  yet,  I  own,  I  should 
be  very  sorry  to  have  The  Beggar s  Opera  suppressed;  for 
there  is  in  it  so  much  of  real  London  life,  so  much  brilliant 
wit,  and  such  a  variety  of  airs,  which,  from  early  association 
of  ideas,  engage,  soothe,  and  enliven  the  mind,  that  no  per- 
formance which  the  theatre  exhibits,  delights  me  more. 

The  late  '■  zvortJiy'  Duke  of  Oueensberry',  as  Thomson,  in 
his  Seasofis,  justly  characterises  him,  told  me,  that  when  Gay 
first  shewed  him  The  Beggar  s  Opera,  his  Grace's  observa- 
tion was,  'This  is  a  very  odd  thing,  Gay;  I  am  satisfied  that 
it  is  either  a  very  good  thing,  or  a  very  bad  thing.'  It 
proved  the  former,  beyond  the  warmest  expectations  of  the 
authour  or  his  friends.  Mr.  Cambridge,  however,  shewed  us 
to-day,  that  there  was  good  reason  enough  to  doubt  con- 
cerning its  success.  He  was  told  by  Quin,  that  during  the 
first  night  of  its  appearance,  it  was  long  in  a  very  dubious 
state ;  that  there  was  a  disposition  to  damn  it,  and  that  it 
was  saved  by  the  song% 

'  Oh  ponder  well !  be  not  severe  !' 

the  audience  being  much  affected  by  the  innocent  looks  of 
Polly,  when  she  came  to  those  two  lines,  which  exhibit  at 
once  a  painful  and  ridiculous  image, 

'  For  on  the  rope  that  hangs  my  Dear, 
Depends  poor  Polly's  life.' 

'  '  The  worthy  Oueensb'ry  yet  laments  his  Gay.' 

The  Seasons.  Summer,  1.  1422.  Pope  {Pro/ogiec  to  the  Satires,  1.  259) 
says : — 

'  Of  all  thy  blameless  life  the  sole  return 
My  verse,  and  Queensb'ry  weeping  o'er  thy  urn.' 
Johnson  (  Works,  viii.  69)  mentions  '  the  affectionate  attention  of  the 
Duke  and  Duchess  of  Queensberry,  into  whose  house  he  was  taken, 
and  with  whom  he  passed  the  remaining  part  of  his  life.'  Smollett, 
in  Humphry  Clinker,  in  the  letters  of  Sept.  12  and  13,  speaks  of  the 
Duke  as '  one  of  the  best  men  that  ever  breathed,'  '  one  of  those  few 
noblemen  whose  goodness  of  heart  does  honour  to  human  nature.' 
He  died  in  1778. 

^  This  song  is  the  twelfth  air  in  act  i. 

Quin 


Aetat,  66.]  R.  B.  Sheridan  s  marriage.  423 

Ouin  himself  had  so  bad  an  opinion  of  it,  that  he  refused 
the  part  of  Captain  Macheath,  and  gave  it  to  Walker',  who 
acquired  great  celebrity  by  his  grave  yet  animated  perform- 
ance of  it\ 

We  talked  of  a  young  gentleman's  marriage  with  an  emi- 
nent singer \  and  his  determination  that  she  should  no  lon- 
ger sing  in  publick,  though  his  father  was  very  earnest  she 
should,  because  her  talents  would  be  liberally  rewarded,  so 
as  to  make  her  a  good  fortune.  It  was  questioned  whether 
the  young  gentleman,  who  had  not  a  shilling  in  the  world\ 
but  was  blest  with  very  uncommon  talents,  was  not  fool- 
ishly delicate,  or  foolishly  proud,  and  his  father  truely  ra- 
tional without  being  mean.  Johnson,  with  all  the  high 
spirit  of  a  Roman  senator,  exclaimed, '  He  resolved  wisely 
and  nobly  to  be  sure.  He  is  a  brave  man.  Would  not  a 
gentleman  be  disgraced  by  having  his  wife  singing  publick- 
ly  for  hire?  No,  Sir,  there  can  be  no  doubt  here.  I  know 
not  if  I  should  not  prepare  myself  for  a  publick  singer,  as 
readily  as  let  my  wife  be  one.' 

Johnson  arraigned  the  modern  politicks  of  this  coun- 
try, as  entirely  devoid   of  all   principle  of  whatever  kind. 


'  '  In  several  parts  of  tragedy,'  writes  Tom  Davies, '  Walker's  look, 
deportment,  and  action  gave  a  distinguished  glare  to  tyrannie  rage.' 
Davies's  Carrick,  i.  24. 

^  Pope  said  of  himself  and  Swift : — '  Neither  of  us  thought  it  would 
succeed.  We  shewed  it  to  Congreve,  who  said  it  would  either  take 
greatly  or  be  damned  confoundedly.  We  were  all  at  the  first  night 
of  it  in  great  uncertainty  of  the  event,  till  we  were  very  much  encour- 
aged by  overhearing  the  Duke  of  Argyle  say,  "  It  will  do — it  must  do ! 
I  see  it  in  the  eyes  of  them !"  This  was  a  good  while  before  the  first 
act  was  over,  and  so  gave  us  ease  soon  :  for  that  duke  has  a  more  par- 
ticular knack  than  any  one  now  living  in  discovering  the  taste  of  the 
publick.  He  was  quite  right  in  this,  as  usual :  the  good-nature  of  the 
audience  appeared  stronger  and  stronger  every  act,  and  ended  in  a 
clamour  of  applause.'  Spence's  Ancc.  p.  159.  See  The  Dunciad,  iii. 
330,  2sv^  post,  April  25,  1778. 

*  R.  R.  Sheridan  married  Miss  Linley  in  1773. 

*■  His  wife  had  /^3ooo,  settled  on  her  with  delicate  generosity  by  a 
gentleman  to  whom  she  had  been  engaged.     Moore's  Sheridan,  i.  43. 

*  Politicks, 


424  Absolute  government.  [a.d.  1775. 

'  Politicks,  (said  he,)  arc  now  nothing  more  than  means  of 
rising  in  the  world.  With  this  sole  view  do  men  engage  in 
politicks,  and  their  whole  conduct  proceeds  upon  it.  How 
different  in  that  respect  is  the  state  of  the  nation  now  from 
what  it  was  in  the  time  of  Charles  the  First,  during  the 
Usurpation,  and  after  the  Restoration,  in  the  time  of  Charles 
the  Second.  Hndibras  affords  a  strong  proof  how  much 
hold  political  principles  had  then  upon  the  minds  of  men. 
There  is  in  Hndibras  a  great  deal  of  bullion  which  will 
always  last.  But  to  be  sure  the  brightest  strokes  of  his 
wit  owed  their  force  to  the  impression  of  the  characters, 
which  was  upon  men's  minds  at  the  time ;  to  their  know- 
ing them,  at  table  and  in  the  street ;  in  short,  being  fa- 
miliar with  them  ;  and  above  all,  to  his  satire  being  di- 
rected against  those  whom  a  little  while  before  they  had 
hated  and  feared  \  The  nation  in  general  has  ever  been 
loyal,  has  been  at  all  times  attached  to  the  monarch,  though 
a  few  daring  rebels  have  been  wonderfully  powerful  for  a 
time.  The  murder  of  Charles  the  First  was  undoubtedly 
not  committed  with  the  approbation  or  consent  of  the  peo- 
ple. Had  that  been  the  case,  Parliament  would  not  have 
ventured  to  consign  the  regicides  to  their  deserved  punish- 
ment. And  we  know  what  exuberance  of  joy  there  was 
when  Charles  the  Second  was  restored.  If  Charles  the 
Second  had  bent  all  his  mind  to  it,  had  made  it  his  sole 
object,  he  might  have  been  as  absolute  as  Louis  the  Four- 
teenth.' A  gentleman  observed  he  would  have  done  no 
harm  if  he  had.  Johnson.  '  Why,  Sir,  absolute  princes 
seldom  do  any  harm.  But  they  who  are  governed  by  them 
are  governed  by  chance.  There  is  no  security  for  good 
government.'      Cambridge.   '  There  have  been  many  sad 

^  '  Those  who  had  felt  the  mischief  of  discord  and  the  tyranny  of 
usurpation  read  Hndibras  with  rapture,  for  every  Hne  brought  back  to 
memory  something  known,  and  gratified  resentment  by  the  just  cen- 
sure of  something  hated.  But  the  book,  which  was  once  quoted  by 
princes,  and  which  suppHed  conversation  to  all  the  assemblies  of  the 
gay  and  witty,  is  now  seldom  mentioned,  and  even  by  those  that  afTect 
to  mention  it,  is  seldom  read.'     The  Idler,  No.  59. 

victims 


Aetat.  C6.]  Sir  Roger  de  Cover  ley.  425 

victims  to  absolute  government.'  Johnson.  '  So,  Sir,  have 
there  been  to  popular  factions.*  BOSWELL.  '  The  question 
is,  which  is  worst,  one  wild  beast  or  many  ?' 

Johnson  praised  The  Spectator,  particularly  the  character 
of  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley.  He  said, '  Sir  Roger  did  not  die 
a  violent  death,  as  has  been  generally  fancied.  He  was  not 
killed;  he  died  only  because  others  were  to  die,  and  because 
his  death  afforded  an  opportunity  to  Addison  for  some  very 
fine  writing.  We  have  the  example  of  Cervantes  making 
Don  Quixote  die'. — I  never  could  see  why  Sir  Roger  is  rep- 
resented as  a  little  cracked.  It  appears  to  me  that  the 
story  of  the  widow  was  intended  to  have  something  super- 
induced upon  it :  but  the  superstructure  did  not  come^' 

Somebody  found  fault  Avith  writing  verses  in  a  dead  lan- 
guage, maintaining  that  they  were  merely  arrangements  of 
so  many  words,  and  laughed  at  the  Universities  of  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  for  sending  forth  collections  of  them  not 
only  in  Greek  and  Latin,  but  even  in  Syriac,  Arabick,  and 
other  more  unknown  tongues.  Johnson.  '  I  would  have  as 
many  of  these  as  possible  ;  I  would  have  verses  in  every 
language  that  there  are  the  means  of  acquiring.  Nobody 
imagines  that  an  University  is  to  have  at  once  two  hundred 
poets ;  but  it  should  be  able  to  show  two  hundred  scholars. 
Pieresc's^  death  was  lamented,  I  think,  in  forty  languages. 


'  In  his  IJfc  of  Addison,  Johnson  says  (  Works,  vii.  431) : — '  The  rea- 
son which  induced  Cervantes  to  bring  his  hero  to  the  grave, /<mr  m£ 
solo  Jiacio  Don  Quixote  y  yo  para  el  [for  me  alone  was  Don  Quixote 
born,  and  I  for  him],  made  Addison  declare,  with  undue  vehemence 
of  expression,  that  he  would  kill  Sir  Roger ;  being  of  opinion  that 
they  were  born  for  one  another,  and  that  any  other  hand  would  do 
him  wrong.' 

*  '  It  may  be  doubted  whether  Addison  ever  filled  up  his  original 
delineation.  He  describes  his  knight  as  having  his  imagination  some- 
what warped;  but  of  this  perversion  he  has  made  very  little  use.' 
Johnson's  Works,  m'\\.  \i\. 

'  '  The  papers  left  in  the  closet  of  Pieresc  supplied  his  heirs  with  a 
whole  winter's  fuel.'  T/ie  Idler,  No.  65.  'A  chamber  in  his  house  was 
filled  with  letters  fiom  the  most  eminent  scholars  of  the  age.  The 
learned  in  Europe  had  addressed  Pieresc  in  their  difTiculties,  who  was 

And 


426  University-verses.  [a.d.  1775. 

And  I  would  have  had  at  every  coronation,  and  every  death 
of  a  King,  every  Gaudhim,  and  every  Lnctus,  University- 
verses,  in  as  many  languages  as  can  be  acquired.  I  would 
have  the  world  to  be  thus  told,  "  Here  is  a  school  where 
every  thing  may  be  learnt."  ' 

Having  set  out  next  day  on  a  visit  to  the  Earl  of  Pem- 
broke, at  Wilton',  and  to  my  friend  Mr.  Temple^  at  Mam- 
head,  in  Devonshire,  and  not  having  returned  to  town  till 
the  second  of  May,  I  did  not  see  Dr.  Johnson  for  a  con- 
siderable time,  and  during  the  remaining  part  of  my  stay 
in  London,  kept  very  imperfect  notes  of  his  conversation, 
which  had  I  according  to  my  usual  custom  written  out  at 
large  soon  after  the  time,  much  might  have  been  preserved, 
which  is  now  irretrievably  lost.  I  can  now  only  record  some 
particular  scenes,  and  a  few  fragments  of  his  uicinorabilia. 
But  to  make  some  amends  for  my  relaxation  of  diligence  in 
one  respect,  I  have  to  present  my  readers  with  arguments 
upon  two  law  cases,  with  which  he  favoured  mc. 

On  Saturday,  the  sixth  of  May,  we  dined  by  ourselves  at 
the  Mitre,  and  he  dictated  to  me  what  follows,  to  obviate 
the  complaint  already  mentioned  \  which  had  been  made 
in  the  form  of  an  action  in  the  Court  of  Session,  by  Dr. 
Memis,  of  Aberdeen,  that  in  the  same  translation  of  a  charter 
in  which  physicians  were  mentioned,  he  was  called  Doctor  of 
Medicine. 

'There  are  but  two  reasons  for  which  a  physician  can  decline 

hence  called  "the  attorney-general  of  the  republic  of  letters."  The 
niggardly  niece,  though  entreated  to  permit  them  to  be  published, 
preferred  to  use  these  learned  epistles  occasionally  to  light  her  fires.' 
Disraeli's  Curiosities  of  Literature,  i.  59. 

'  Boswell  was  accompanied  by  Paoli.  To  justify  his  visit  to  Lon- 
don, he  said  : — '  I  think  it  is  also  for  my  interest,  as  in  time  I  may  get 
something.  Lord  Pembroke  was  very  obliging  to  me  when  he  was  in 
Scotland,  and  has  corresponded  with  me  since.  I  have  hopes  from 
him.'  Letters  of  Boswell,  pp.  182,  189,  and  post,  iii.  139,  note  i.  Horace 
Walpole  described  Lord  Pembroke  in  1764  as 'a  young  profligate.' 
Metnoirs  of  the  Reign  of  George  LLI,  i.  41 5. 

«  See  ante,  ii.  362.    Boswell.  '  See  ante,  ii.  333.    Boswell. 

the 


Aetat.  66.]   Physicians  and  Doctors  of  Medicine.        427 

the  title  of  Doctor  of  Medicine,  because  he  supposes  himself  dis- 
graced by  the  doctorship,  or  supposes  the  doctorship  disgraced  by 
himself.  To  be  disgraced  by  a  title  which  he  shares  in  common 
with  every  illustrious  name  of  his  profession,  with  Boerhaave,  with 
Arbuthnot,  and  with  Cullen,  can  surely  diminish  no  man's  reputa- 
tion. It  is,  I  suppose,  to  the  doctorate,  from  which  he  shrinks, 
that  he  owes  his  right  of  practising  physick.  A  doctor  of  Medi- 
cine is  a  physician  under  the  protection  of  the  laws,  and  by  the 
stamp  of  authority.  The  physician,  who  is  not  a  Doctor,  usurps 
a  profession,  and  is  authorized  only  by  himself  to  decide  upon 
health  and  sickness,  and  life  and  death.  That  this  gentleman  is 
a  Doctor,  his  diploma  makes  evident ;  a  diploma  not  obtruded 
upon  him,  but  obtained  by  solicitation,  and  for  which  fees  were 
paid.  With  what  countenance  any  man  can  refuse  the  title  which 
he  has  either  begged  or  bought,  is  not  easily  discovered. 

'  All  verbal  injury  must  comprise  in  it  either  some  false  position, 
or  some  unnecessary  declaration  of  defamatory  truth.  That  in 
calling  him  Doctor,  a  false  appellation  was  given  him,  he  himself 
will  not  pretend,  who  at  the  same  time  that  he  complains  of  the 
title,  would  be  offended  if  we  supposed  him  to  be  not  a  Doctor. 
If  the  title  of  Doctor  be  a  defamatory  truth,  it  is  time  to  dissolve 
our  colleges ;  for  why  should  the  publick  give  salaries  to  men 
whose  approbation  is  reproach  ?  It  may  likewise  deserve  the 
notice  of  the  publick  to  consider  what  help  can  be  given  to  the 
professors  of  physick,  who  all  share  with  this  unhappy  gentleman 
the  ignominious  appellation,  and  of  whom  the  very  boys  in  the 
street  are  not  afraid  to  say.  There  goes  the  Doctor. 

'  What  is  implied  by  the  term  Doctor  is  well  known.  It  distin- 
guishes him  to  whom  it  is  granted,  as  a  man  who  has  attained 
such  knowledge  of  his  profession  as  qualifies  him  to  instruct  oth- 
ers. A  Doctor  of  Laws  is  a  man  who  can  form  lawyers  by  his  pre- 
cepts. A  Doctor  of  Medicine  is  a  man  who  can  teach  the  art  of 
curing  diseases.  There  is  an  old  axiom  which  no  man  has  yet 
thought  fit  to  deny,  Nil  clat  quod  non  habet.  Upon  this  principle 
to  be  Doctor  implies  skill,  for  7iema  docet  quod  no?i  didicit.  In  Eng- 
land, whoever  practises  physick,  not  being  a  Doctor,  must  practise 
by  a  licence :  but  the  doctorate  conveys  a  licence  in  itself. 

'  By  what  accident  it  happened  that  he  and  the  other  physicians 
were  mentioned  in  different  terms,  where  the  terms  themselves 
were  equivalent,  or  where  in  effect  that  which  was  applied  to  him 
was  the  most  honourable,  perhaps  they  who  wrote  the  paper  can- 
not now  remember.     Had  they  expected  a  lawsuit  to  have  been 

the 


428  The  Corporation  of  Stirling.         [a.d.  1775. 

the  consequence  of  such  petty  variation,  I  hope  they  would  have 
avoided  it'.  But,  probably,  as  they  meant  no  ill,  they  suspected  no 
danger,  and,  therefore,  consulted  only  what  appeared  to  them  pro- 
priety or  convenience.' 

A  few  days  afterwards  I  consulted  him  upon  a  cause.  Pat- 
er son  and  others  against  Alexander  and  others,  which  had 
been  decided  by  a  casting  vote  in  the  Court  of  Session,  de- 
termining that  the  Corporation  of  Stirling  was  corrupt,  and 
setting  aside  the  election  of  some  of  their  officers,  because  it 
was  proved  that  three  of  the  leading  men  who  influenced 
the  majority  had  entered  into  an  unjustifiable  compact,  of 
which,  however,  the  majority  were  ignorant.  He  dictated 
to  me,  after  a  little  consideration,  the  following  sentences 
upon  the  subject  :— 

'  There  is  a  difference  between  majority  and  superiority ;  ma- 
jority is  applied  to  number,  and  superiority  to  power ;  and  power, 
like  many  other  things,  is  to  be  estimated  non  ninnero  sed pondcre. 
Now  though  the  greater  number  is  not  corrupt,  the  greater  weight 
is  corrupt,  so  that  corruption  predominates  in  the  borough,  taken 
collectively,  though,  perhaps,  taken  Jiiii?ierically,  the  greater  part  may 
be  uncorrupt.  That  borough,  which  is  so  constituted  as  to  act 
corruptly,  is  in  the  eye  of  reason  corrupt,  whether  it  be  by  the 
uncontrolable  power  of  a  few,  or  by  an  accidental  pravity  of  the 
multitude.  The  objection,  in  which  is  urged  the  injustice  of  mak- 
ing the  innocent  suffer  with  the  guilty,  is  an  objection  not  only 
against  society,  but  against  the  possibility  of  society.  All  socie- 
ties, great  and  small,  subsist  upon  this  condition ;  that  as  the 
individuals  derive  advantages  from  union,  they  may  likewise  suffer 
inconveniences ;  that  as  those  who  do  nothing,  and  sometimes 
those  who  do  ill,  will  have  the  honours  and  emoluments  of  general 
virtue  and  general  prosperity,  so  those  likewise  who  do  nothing, 
or  perhaps  do  well,  must  be  involved  in  the  consequences  of  pre- 
dominant corruption.' 

This  in  my  opinion  was  a  very  nice  case;  but  the  decision 
was  affirmed  in  the  House  of  Lords. 

*  In  justice  to  Dr.  Memis,  though  I  was  against  him  as  an  Advocate, 
I  must  mention,  that  he  objected  to  the  variation  very  earnestly,  be- 
fore the  translation  was  printed  off.     Boswell. 

On 


Aetat.  66.]  A  visit  to  Bedlavi.  429 

On  Monday,  May  8,  we  went  together  and  visited  the 
mansions  of  Bedlam'.  I  had  been  informed  that  he  had 
once  been  there  before  with  Mr.  Wedderburne,  (now  Lord 
Loughborough,)  Mr.  Murphy,  and  Mr.  Foote ;  and  I  had 
heard  Foote  give  a  very  entertaining  account  of  Johnson's 
happening  to  have  his  attention  arrested  by  a  man  who 
was  very  furious,  and  who,  while  beating  his  straw^  sup- 
posed it  was  Wilham  Duke  of  Cum.bcrland,  whom  he  was 

'  Mr.  Croker  quotes  The  World  of  June  7,  1753,  where  a  Londoner, 
'  to  gratify  the  curiosity  of  a  country  friend,  accompanied  him  in  Easter 
week  to  Bedlam.  To  my  great  surprise,'  he  writes,  '  I  found  a  hun- 
dred people,  at  least,  who,  having  paid  their  twopence  apiece,  were 
suffered  unattended  to  run  rioting  up  and  down  the  wards  making 
sport  of  the  miserable  inhabitants.  I  saw  them  in  a  loud  laugh  of 
triumph  at  the  ravings  they  had  occasioned.'  Young  i^Ufiiversal Pas- 
sion, Sat.  V.)  describes  Britannia's  daughters 

'  As  unreserved  and  beauteous  as  the  sun. 
Through  every  sign  of  vanity  they  run ; 
Assemblies,  parks,  coarse  feasts  in  city  halls. 
Lectures  and  trials,  plays,  committees,  balls; 
Wells,  Bedlams,  executions,  Smithfield  scenes. 
And  fortune-tellers'  caves,  and  lions'  dens.' 
In  1749,  William  Hutton  walked  from  Nottingham  to  London,  passed 
three  days  there  in  looking  about,  and  returned  on  foot.     The  whole 
journey  cost  him  ten  shillings  and  eight-pence.     He  says  : — '  I  wished 
to  see  a  number  of  curiosities,  but  my  shallow  pocket  forbade.     One 
penny  to  see  Bedlam  ivas  all  I  could  spare.'     Button's  Life,  pp.  71,  74. 
Richardson  {Familiar  Letters,  No.  153)  makes  a  young  lady  describe 
her  visit  to  Bedlam  : — '  The  distempered  fancies  of  the  miserable  pa- 
tients most  unaccountably  provoked  mirth  and  loud  laughter;  nay, 
so  shamefully  inhuman  were  some,  among  whom  (I  am  sorry  to  say  it) 
were  sev'eral  of  my  own  sex,  as  to  endeavour  to  provoke  the  patients 
into  rage  to  make  them  sport.' 

"^  In  the  Life  of  Dryden  (yWorks,v\\.  304),  Johnson  writes: — 'Virgil 
would  have  been  too  hasty  if  he  had  condemned  him  [Statins]  to  straw 
for  one  sounding  line.'  In  Humphry  Clin/cer  (Letter  of  June  10),  Mr. 
Bramble  says  to  Clinker: — 'The  sooner  you  lose  your  senses  entirely 
the  better  for  yourself  and  the  community.  In  that  case,  some  chari- 
table person  might  provide  you  with  a  dark  room  and  clean  straw  in 
Bedlam.'  Churchill,  in  Independence  (Poems,  ii.  307),  writes  : — 
'  To  Bethlem  with  him— give  him  whips  and  straw, 
I'm  very  sensible  he's  mad  in  law.' 

punishing 


430  The  Duke  of  Cumberland.  [a.d.  1775. 

punishing  for  his  cruelties  in  Scotland,  in  1746'.  There 
was  nothing  peculiarly  remarkable  this  day ;  but  the  gen- 
eral contemplation  of  insanity  was  v^ery  affecting.  I  accom- 
panied him  home,  and  dined  and  drank  tea  with  him. 

Talking  of  an  acquaintance  of  ours",  distinguished  for 
knowing  an  uncommon  variety  of  miscellaneous  articles 
both  in  antiquities  and  polite  literature,  he  observed, '  You 
know.  Sir,  he  runs  about  with  little  weight  upon  his  mind.' 
And  talking  of  another  very  ingenious  gentleman  ^  who 
from  the  warmth  of  his  temper  was  at  variance  with  many 
of  his  acquaintance,  and  washed  to  avoid  them,  he  said, 
'  Sir,  he  leads  the  life  of  an  outlaw.' 

On  Friday,  May  I2^  as  he  had  been  so  good  as  to  assign 

'  My  very  honourable  friend  General  Sir  George  Howard,  who 
served  in  the  Duke  of  Cumberland's  army,  has  assured  me  that  the 
cruelties  were  not  imputable  to  his  Royal  Highness.  Boswell. 
Horace  Walpole  shews  the  Duke's  cruelty  to  his  own  soldiers.  '  In 
the  late  rebellion  some  recruits  had  been  raised  under  a  positive  en- 
gagement of  dismission  at  the  end  of  three  years.  When  the  term 
was  expired  they  thought  themselves  at  liberty,  and  some  of  them 
quitted  the  corps.  The  Duke  ordered  them  to  be  tried  as  deserters, 
and  not  having  received  a  legal  discharge,  they  were  condemned. 
Nothing  could  mollify  him;  two  were  executed.'  Metnoirs  of  the 
Rez'gn  of  George  II,  ii.  203. 

'  It  has  been  suggested  that  this  is  Dr.  Percy  (see  post,  April  23, 
1778),  but  Percy  was  more  than  'an  acquaintance  of  ours,'  he  was  a 
friend. 

^  Very  likely  Mr.  Steevens.   See  post,  April  13,  1778,  and  May  15,  1784. 

*  On  this  day  Johnson  wrote  to  Mrs.  Thrale : — '  Boswell  has  made 
me  promise  not  to  go  to  Oxford  till  he  leaves  London  ;  I  had  no  great 
reason  for  haste,  and  therefore  might  as  well  gratify  a  friend.  I  am 
always  proud  and  pleased  to  have  my  company  desired.  Boswell 
would  have  thought  my  absence  a  loss,  and  I  know  not  who  else 
would  have  considered  my  presence  as  profit.  He  has  entered  him- 
self at  the  Temple,  and  I  joined  in  his  bond.  He  is  to  plead  before 
the  Lords,  and  hopes  very  nearly  to  gain  the  cost  of  his  journey.  He 
lives  much  with  his  friend  Paoli.'  Ptozzi  Letters,  i.  216.  Boswell 
wrote  to  Temple  on  June  6: — '  For  the  last  fortnight  that  I  was  in 
London  I  lay  at  Paoli's  house,  and  had  the  command  of  his  coach. . . . 
I  felt  more  dignity  when  I  had  several  servants  at  my  devotion,  a 
large  apartment,  and  the  convenience  and  state  of  a  coach.     I  recol- 

me 


Aetat.  6G.]  Coustdtatious  071  Sunday.  431 

me  a  room  in  his  house,  where  I  might  sleep  occasionally, 
when  I  happened  to  sit  with  him  to  a  late  hour,  I  took 
possession  of  it  this  night,  found  every  thing  in  excellent 
order,  and  was  attended  by  honest  Francis  with  a  most 
cival  assiduity.  I  asked  Johnson  whether  I  might  go  to  a 
consultation  with  another  lawyer  upon  Sunday,  as  that  ap- 
peared to  me  to  be  doing  work  as  much  in  my  way,  as 
if  an  artisan  should  work  on  the  day  appropriated  for  re- 
ligious rest.  Johnson.  '  Why,  Sir,  when  you  are  of  con- 
sequence enough  to  oppose  the  practice  of  consulting  upon 
Sunday,  you  should  do  it :  but  you  may  go  now.  It  is 
not  criminal,  though  it  is  not  what  one  should  do,  who  is 
anxious  for  the  preservation  and  increase  of  piety,  to  which 
a  peculiar  observance  of  Sunday  is  a  great  help.  The  dis- 
tinction is  clear  between  what  is  of  moral  and  what  is  of 
ritual  obligation.' 

On  Saturday,  May  13,!  breakfasted  with  him  by  invitation, 
accompanied  by  Mr.  Andrew  Crosbie',  a  Scotch  Advocate, 
whom  he  had  seen  at  Edinburgh,  and  the  Hon.  Colonel 
(now  General)  Edward  Stopford,  brother  to  Lord  Court- 
own,  who  was  desirous  of  being  introduced  to  him.  His 
tea  and  rolls  and  butter,  and  whole  breakfast  apparatus  were 
all  in  such  decorum,  and  his  behaviour  was  so  courteous, 


lected  that  this  digtiity  in  Lo7idoii  was  honourably  acquired  by  my 
travels  abroad,  and  my  pen  after  I  came  home,  so  I  could  enjoy  it 
with  my  own  approbation.'  Letters  of  Bostvell,  p.  200.  A  year  later 
he  records,  that  henceforth,  while  in  London,  he  was  Paoli's  constant 
guest  till  he  had  a  house  of  his  own  there  {post,  iii.  40). 

'  Lord  Stowell  told  Mr.  Croker  that,  among  the  Scottish  literati, 
Mr.  Crosbic  was  the  only  man  who  was  disposed  to  stand  up  (as  the 
phrase  is)  to  Johnson.  Croker's  Bosivell,  p.  270.  It  is  said  that  he 
was  the  original  of  Mr.  Counsellor  Pleydell  in  Scott's  novel  of  Guy 
Mastering.  Dr.  A.  Carlyle  {Autobiography,  p.  420)  says  of  '  the  fa- 
mous club  called  The  Poker,'  which  was  founded  in  Edinburgh  in 
1762  : — '  In  a  laughing  humour,  Andrew  Crosbie  was  chosen  Assassin, 
in  case  any  officer  of  that  sort  should  be  needed ;  but  David  Hume 
was  added  as  his  Assessor,  without  whose  assent  nothing  should  be 
done,  so  that  between ////.?  and  w/;;/c.f  there  was  likely  to  be  no  blood- 
shed.'    See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  16,  1773. 

that 


432  The  making  of  gold.  [a.d.  1775, 

that  Colonel  Stopford  was  quite  surprised,  and  wondered 
at  his  having  heard  so  much  said  of  Johnson's  slovenli- 
ness and  roughness.  I  have  preserved  nothing  of  what 
passed,  except  that  Crosbie  pleased  him  much  by  talking 
learnedly  of  alchymy,  as  to  which  Johnson  was  not  a  posi- 
tive unbeliever,  but  rather  delighted  in  considering  what 
progress  had  actually  been  made  in  the  transmutation  of 
metals,  what  near  approaches  there  had  been  to  the  mak- 
ing of  gold  ;  and  told  us  that  it  was  affirmed,  that  a  per- 
son in  the  Russian  dominions  had  discovered  the  secret, 
but  died  without  revealing  it,  as  imagining  it  would  be  prej- 
udicial to  society.  He  added,  that  it  was  not  impossible 
but  it  might  in  time  be  generally  known. 

It  being  asked  whether  it  was  reasonable  for  a  man  to  be 
angry  at  another  whom  a  woman  had  preferred  to  him ; — 
Johnson.  '  I  do  not  see,  Sir,  that  it  is  reasonable  for  a  man 
to  be  angry  at  another,  whom  a  woman  has  preferred  to  him : 
but  angry  he  is,  no  doubt ;  and  he  is  loath  to  be  angry  at 
himself.' 

Before    setting    out    for    Scotland    on    the    23rd',  I   was 

'  He  left  on  the  22nd.  '  Boswell,'  wrote  Johnson  to  Mrs.  Thrale  on 
May  22,  '  went  away  at  two  this  morning.  He  got  two  and  forty 
guineas  in  fees  while  he  was  here.  He  has,  by  his  wife's  persuasion 
and  mine,  taken  down  a  present  for  his  mother-in-law.'  [.?  Step- 
mother, with  whom  he  was  always  on  bad  terms ;  post,  iii.  108,  note  2.] 
Piozzi  Letters,  i.  219.  Boswell,  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  wrote  to 
Temple  from  Grantham : — '  I  have  now  eat  [sic]  a  Term's  Commons 
in  the  Inner  Temple.  You  cannot  imagine  what  satisfaction  I  had  in 
the  form  and  ceremony  of  the  Hall. . .  .  After  breakfasting  with  Paoli, 
and  worshipping  at  St.  Paul's,  I  dined  tete-a-tete  with  my  charming 
Mrs.  Stuart.  We  talked  with  unreserved  freedom,  as  we  had  nothing 
to  fear ;  we  were  philosophical,  upon  honour — not  deep,  but  feeling ; 
we  were  pious ;  we  drank  tea,  and  bid  each  other  adieu  as  finely  as 
romance  paints.  She  is  my  wife's  dearest  friend  ;  so  you  see  how  beau- 
tiful our  intimacy  is.  I  then  went  to  Mr.  Johnson's,  and  he  accompa- 
nied me  to  Dilly's,  where  we  supped ;  and  then  he  went  with  me  to  the 
inn  in  Holborn,  where  the  Newcastle  Fly  sets  out ;  we  were  warmly 
affectionate.  He  is  to  buy  for  me  a  chest  of  books,  of  his  choosing, 
off  stalls,  and  I  am  to  read  more  and  drink  less ;  that  was  his  coun- 
sel.'    Letters  of  Boswell,  p.  196. 

frequently 


Aetat.  6G.]        Garrick^ s  hiozuledge  of  Latin.  433 

frequently  in  his  company  at  different  places,  but  during 
this  period  have  recorded  only  two  remarks :  one  concern- 
ing Garrick:  '  He  has  not  Latin  enough.  He  finds  out  the 
Latin  by  the  meaning  rather  than  the  meaning  by  the 
Latin'.'  And  another  concerning  writers  of  travels,  who, 
he  observed, '  were  more  defective  than  any  other  writers'.' 

I  passed  many  hours  with  him  on  the  17th',  of  which 
I  find  all  my  memorial  is,  '  much  laughing.'  It  should 
seem  he  had  that  day  been  in  a  humour  for  jocularity  and 

*  Yet  Gilbert  Walmsley  had  called  him  in  his  youth  '  a  good  scholar.* 
Garrick  Corres.  i.  i  ;  and  Boswell  wrote  to  him  : — '  Mr.  Johnson  is  ready 
to  bruise  any  one  who  calls  in  question  your  classical  knowledge,  and 
your  happy  application  of  it.'     lb.  p.  622. 

"  '  Those  whose  lot  it  is  to  ramble  can  seldom  write,  and  those  who 
know  how  to  write  very  seldom  ramble.'  Johnson  to  Mrs.  Thrale. 
Ptoszt  Letters,  i.  32.     See  post,  April  17,  1778. 

'  A  letter  from  Boswell  to  Temple  on  this  day  helps  to  fill  up  the 
gap  in  his  journal : — '  It  gives  me  acute  pain  that  I  have  not  written 
more  to  you  since  we  parted  last ;  but  I  have  been  like  a  skiff  in  the 
sea,  driven  about  by  a  multiplicity  of  waves.  I  am  now  at  Mr.  Thrale's 
villa,  at  Streatham,  a  delightful  spot.  Dr.  Johnson  is  here  too.  I  came 
yesterday  to  dinner,  and  this  morning  Dr.  Johnson  and  I  return  to 
London,  and  I  go  with  Mr.  Beauclerk  to  see  his  elegant  villa  and  libra- 
ry, worth  ^^3000,  at  Muswell  Hill,  and  return  and  dine  with  him.  I 
hope  Dr.  Johnson  will  dine  with  us.  I  am  in  that  dissipated  state  of 
mind  that  I  absolutely  cannot  write  ;  I  at  least  imagine  so.  But  while 
I  glow  with  gaiety,  I  feel  friendship  for  you,  nay,  admiration  of  some 
of  your  qualities,  as  strong  as  you  could  wish.  My  excellent  friend, 
let  us  ever  cultivate  that  mutual  regard  which,  as  it  has  lasted  till 
now,  will,  I  trust,  never  fail.  On  Saturday  last  I  dined  with  John 
Wilkes  and  his  daughter,  and  nobody  else,  at  the  Mansion-House  ;  it 
was  a  most  pleasant  scene.  I  had  that  day  breakfasted  with  Dr.  John- 
son. I  drank  tea  with  Lord  Bute's  daughter-in-law,  and  I  supped 
with  Miss  Boswell.  What  variety!  Mr.  Johnson  wen.t  with  me  to 
Beauclerk's  villa,  Beauclerk  having  been  ill ;  it  is  delightful,  just  at 
Highgate.  He  has  one  of  the  most  numerous  and  splendid  private 
libraries  that  I  ever  saw ;  green-houses,  hot-houses,  observatory,  lab- 
oratory for  chemical  experiments,  in  short,  everything  princely.  We 
dined  with  him  at  his  box  at  the  Adclphi.  I  have  promised  to  Dr. 
Johnson  to  read  when  I  get  to  Scotland,  and  to  keep  an  account  of 
what  I  read ;  I  shall  let  you  know  how  I  go  on.  My  mind  must  be 
nourished.'     Letters  0/ BosTue//,  pp.  193-5. 

H. — 28  merriment, 


434  Johnson'' s  laugh.  [a.d.1775. 

merriment,  and  upon  such  occasions  I  never  knew  a  man 
laugh  more  heartily.  Wo  may  suppose,  that  the  high  relish 
of  a  state  so  different  from  his  habitual  gloom,  produced 
more  than  ordinary  exertions  of  that  distinguishing  faculty 
of  man,  which  has  puzzled  philosophers  so  much  to  explain'. 
Johnson's  laugh'was  as  remarkable  as  any  circumstance  in 
his  manner.  It  was  a  kind  of  good  humoured  growl.  Tom 
Davies  described  it  drolly  enough :  '  He  laughs  like  a  rhi- 
noceros.' 

'To  Bennet  Langton,  Esq. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  I  have  an  old  amanuensis  ^  in  great  distress.     I  have  given 

'  Swift  did  not  laugh.  '  He  had  a  countenance  sour  and  severe, 
which  he  seldom  softened  by  any  appearance  of  gaiety.  He  stub- 
bornly resisted  any  tendency  to  laughter.'  Johnson's  ^Fi^r^^.viii.  222. 
Neither  did  Pope  laugh.  '  By  no  merriment,  either  of  others  or  his 
own,  was  he  ever  seen  excited  to  laughter.'  lb.  p.  312.  Lord  Chester- 
field wrote  {Letters,  i.  329)  : — '  How  low  and  unbecoming  a  thing  laugh- 
ter is.  I  am  sure  that  since  I  have  had  the  full  use  of  my  reason  no- 
body has  ever  heard  me  laugh.'  Mrs.  Piozzi  records  {Anec.  p.  298)  that 
'  Dr.  Johnson  used  to  say  "  that  the  size  of  a  man's  understanding 
might  always  be  justly  measured  by  his  mirth ;"  and  his  own  was 
never  contemptible.' 

'  The  day  before  he  wrote  to  Mrs.  Thrale  : — '  Peyton  and  Macbean 
{ante,  i.  217)  are  both  starving,  and  I  cannot  keep  them.'  Piozzi  Let- 
ters,i.i\%.  On  April  i,  1776,  he  wrote: — 'Poor  Peyton  expired  this 
morning.  He  probably,  during  many  years  for  which  he  sat  starv- 
ing by  the  bed  of  a  wife,  not  only  useless  but  almost  motionless,  con- 
demned by  poverty  to  personal  attendance,  and  by  the  necessity  of 
such  attendance  chained  down  to  poverty— he  probably  thought  often 
how  lightly  he  should  tread  the  path  of  life  without  his  burthen.  Of 
this  thought  the  admission  was  unavoidable,  and  the  indulgence 
might  be  forgiven  to  frailty  and  distress.  His  wife  died  at  last,  and 
before  she  was  buried  he  was  seized  by  a  fever,  and  is  now  going  to 
the  grave.  Such  miscarriages  when  they  happen  to  those  on  whom 
many  eyes  are  fixed,  fill  histories  and  tragedies ;  and  tears  have  been 
shed  for  the  sufferings,  and  wonder  excited  by  the  fortitude  of  those 
who  neither  did  nor  suffered  more  than  Peyton.'  /<^.  312.  Baretti, 
in  a  marginal  note  on  Piozzi  Letters,  i.  219,  writes: — 'Peyton  was  a 
fool  and  a  drunkard.  I  never  saw  so  nauseous  a  fellow.'  But  Baretti 
was  a  harsh  judge. 

what 


Aetat.  66.]    English  education  for  Scotchmen.  435 

what  I  think  I  can  give,  and  begged  till  I  cannot  tell  where  to  beg 
again.  I  put  into  his  hands  this  morning  four  guineas.  If  you 
could  collect  three  guineas  more,  it  would  clear  him  from  his  pres- 
ent difficulty. 

'  I  am.  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'May  21, 1775.' 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 

'Dear  Sir, 

'  I  make  no  doubt  but  you  are  now  safely  lodged  in  your  own 
habitation,  and  have  told  all  your  adventures  to  Mrs.  Boswell  and  • 
Miss  Veronica.     Pray  teach  Veronica  to  love  me.     Bid  her  not 
mind  mamma. 

'  Mrs.  Thrale  has  taken  cold,  and  been  very  much  disordered, 
but  I  hope  is  grown  well.  Mr.  Langton  went  yesterday  to  Lin- 
colnshire, and  has  invited  Nicolaida '  to  follow  him.  Beauclerk 
talks  of  going  to  Bath.  I  am  to  set  out  on  INIonday ;  so  there  is 
nothing  but  dispersion. 

'  I  have  returned  Lord  Hailes's  entertaining  sheets  ^  but  must 
stay  till  I  come  back  for  more,  because  it  will  be  inconvenient  to 
send  them  after  me  in  my  vagrant  state. 

'  I  promised  Mrs.  Macaulay  ^  that  I  would  try  to  serve  her  son  at 
Oxford.  I  have  not  forgotten  it,  nor  am  unwilling  to  perform  it. 
If  they  desire  to  give  him  an  English  education,  it  should  be  con- 
sidered whether  they  cannot  send  him  for  a  year  or  two  to  an  Eng- 
lish school.  If  he  comes  immediately  from  Scotland,  he  can  make 
no  figure  in  our  Universities.  The  schools  in  the  north,  I  believe, 
are  cheap  ;  and,  when  I  was  a  young  man,  were  eminently  good. 

'  There  are  two  little  books  published  by  the  Foulis ',  Telemachus 
and  CoUins's  Poems,  each  a  shilling  :  I  would  be  glad  to  have  them. 

'  Make  my  compliments  to  Mrs.  Boswell,  though  she  does  not 
love  me.     You  see  what  perverse  things  ladies  are,  and  how  little 

'  A  learned  Greek.  Boswell.  '  He  was  a  nephew  of  the  Patriarch 
of  Constantinople,  and  had  fled  from  some  massacre  of  the  Greeks.' 
Johnstone's  Life  of  Parr,  i.  84. 

^  See  ante,  ii.  318. 

^  Wife  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Kenneth  Macaulay,  authour  of  The  History 
of  St.  Kilda.     Boswell.     See  Boswcll's  Hebrides,  Aug.  28,  1773. 

^  'The  Elzevirs  of  Glasgow,'  as  Boswell  called  them.  (Hebrides, 
Oct.  29.) 

fit 


436  BosweWs  mind  somewhat  dark.       [a.d.  1775. 

fit  to  be  trusted  with  feudal  estates.     When  she  mends  and  loves 

me,  there  may  be  more  hope  of  her  daughters. 

'  I  will  not  send  compliments  to  my  friends  by  name,  because  I 

would  be  loath  to  leave  any  out  in  the  enumeration.     Tell  them, 

as  you  see  them,  how  well  I  speak  of  Scotch  politeness,  and  Scotch 

hospitality,  and  Scotch  beauty,  and  of  every  thing  Scotch,but  Scotch 

oat-cakes,  and  Scotch  prejudices. 

'  Let  me  know  the  answer  of  Rasay ',  and  the  decision  relating 

to  Sir  Allan '. 

'  I  am,  my  dearest  Sir,  with  great  affection, 

'  Your  most  obliged,  and 

'  Most  humble  servant, 

.,  ,  '  Sam.  Johnson.' 

'  May  27,  1775.  -' 

After  my  return  to  Scotland,  I  wrote  three  letters  to  him, 
from  which  I  extract  the  following  passages : — 

'  I  have  seen  Lord  Hailes  since  I  came  down.  He  thinks  it 
wonderful  that  you  are  pleased  to  take  so  much  pains  in  revising 
his  Annals.  I  told  him  that  you  said  you  were  well  rewarded  by 
the  entertainment  which  you  had  in  reading  them.' 

'  There  has  been  a  numerous  flight  of  Hebrideans  in  Edinburgh 
this  summer,  whom  I  have  been  happy  to  entertain  at  my  house. 
Mr.  Donald  Macqueen '  and  Lord  Monboddo  supped  with  me  one 
evening.  They  joined  in  controverting  your  proposition,  that  the 
Gaelick  of  the  Highlands  and  Isles  of  Scotland  was  not  written 
till  of  late.' 

'  My  mind  has  been  somewhat  dark  this  summer  \     I  have  need 

'  See  in  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Johnson's  letter  of  May  6, 1775. 
"  A  law-suit  carried  on  by  Sir  Allan  Maclean,  Chief  of  his  Clan,  to 
recover  certain  parts  of  his  family  estates  from  the  Duke  of  Argyle. 

BOSWELL. 

^  A  very  learned  minister  in  the  Isle  of  Sky,  whom  both  Dr.  John- 
son and  I  have  mentioned  with  regard.  Boswell.  Boswell's  Heb- 
rides, Sept.  3,  1773,  and  Johnson's  Works,  ix.  54.  Johnson  in  another 
passage  {ib,  p.  115)  speaks  of  him  as  '  a  very  learned  minister.  He 
wished  me  to  be  deceived  [as  regards  Ossian]  for  the  honour  of  his 
country  ;  but  would  not  directly  and  formally  deceive  me.'  Johnson 
told  him  this  to  his  face.  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Sept.  22.  His  credulity 
is  shewn  by  the  belief  he  held,  that  the  name  of  a  place  called  Ainnit 
in  Sky  was  the  same  as  the  Anaitidis  deliibruni  in  Lydia.    Ib.  Sept.  17. 

■■  This  darkness  is  seen  in  his  letters.     He  wrote 'June  3,  1775.     It 

of 


Aetat.  66.]  Letter  to  Boswell.  437 

of  your  warming  and  vivifying  rays  ;  and  I  hope  I  shall  have  them 
frequently.  I  am  going  to  pass  some  time  with  my  father  at  Auch- 
inleck.' 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
'  Dear  Sir, 

'  I  am  returned  from  the  annual  ramble  into  the  middle  coun- 
ties '.     Having  seen  nothing  I  had  not  seen  before,  I  have  nothing 

required  some  philosophy  to  bear  the  change  from  England  to  Scot- 
land. The  unpleasing  tone,  the  rude  familiarity,  the  barren  conver- 
sation of  those  whom  I  found  here,  in  comparison  with  what  I  had 
left,  really  hurt  my  feelings.  .  .  .  The  General  Assembly  is  sitting,  and 
I  practise  at  its  Bar.  There  is  de facto  something  low  and  coarse  in 
such  employment,  though  on  paper  it  is  a  Court  of  Supreme  Judua- 
ii(re\  but  guineas  must  be  had.  .  .  .  Do  you  know  it  requires  more- 
than  ordinary  spirit  to  do  what  I  am  to  do  this  very  morning :  I  am 
to  go  to  the  General  Assembly  and  arraign  a  judgement  pronounced 
last  year  by  Dr.  Robertson,  John  Home,  and  a  good  many  more  of 
them,  and  they  are  to  appear  on  the  other  side.  To  speak  well,  when 
I  despise  both  the  cause  and  the  Judges,  is  difficult :  but  I  believe  I 
shall  do  wonderfully.  I  look  forward  with  aversion  to  the  little,  dull 
labours  of  the  Court  of  Session.  You  see,  Temple,  I  have  my  trou- 
bles as  well  as  you  have.  My  promise  under  the  venerable  yew  has 
kept  me  sober.'  Letters  of  Boswell,  p.  19S.  On  June  19,  he  is  '  vexed 
to  think  myself  a  coarse  labourer  in  an  obscure  corner.  .  .  .  Mr.  Hume 
says  there  will  in  all  probability  be  a  change  of  the  Ministry  soon, 
which  he  regrets.  Oh,  Temple,  while  they  change  so  often,  how  does 
one  feel  an  ambition  to  have  a  share  in  the  great  department !  .  .  .  My 
father  is  most  unhappily  dissatisfied  with  me.  He  harps  on  my  going 
over  Scotland  with  a  brute  (think  how  shockingly  erroneous  !)  and 
wandering  (or  some  such  phrase)  to  London!'  Id.  p.  201.  'Aug.  12. 
I  have  had  a  pretty  severe  return  this  summer  of  that  melancholy,  or 
hypochondria,  which  is  inherent  in  my  constitution. . . .  While  afflicted 
with  melancholy,  all  the  doubts  which  have  ever  disturbed  thinking 
men  come  upon  me.  I  awake  in  the  night  dreading  annihilation,  or 
being  thrown  into  some  horrible  state  of  being.'  He  recounts  a  com- 
plimentary letter  he  had  received  from  Lord  Mayor  Wilkes,  and  con- 
tinues : — '  Tell  me,  my  dear  Temple,  if  a  man  who  receives  so  many 
marks  of  more  than  ordinary  consideration  can  be  satisfied  to  drudge 
in  an  obscure  corner,  where  the  manners  of  the  people  are  disagreea- 
ble to  him.'     Id.  p.  209. 

'  He  was  absent  from  the  end  of  May  till  some  time  in  August. 
He  wrote  from  Oxford  on  June  i  : — '  Don't  suppose  that  I  live  here 
as  we  live  at  Strcatham.     I  went  this  morning  to  the  chapel  at  s/.v.' 

to 


43S  Mr.  Coulson  of  University  College,    [a.d.  1775. 

to  relate.  Time  has  left  that  part  of  the  island  few  antiquities ; 
and  commerce  has  left  the  people  no  singularities.  I  was  glad  to 
go  abroad,  and,  perhaps,  glad  to  come  home ;  which  is,  in  other 
words,  I  was,  I  am  afraid,  weary  of  being  at  home,  and  weary  of 
being  abroad.  Is  not  this  the  state  of  life .''  But,  if  we  confess 
this  weariness,  let  us  not  lament  it,  for  all  the  wise  and  all  the  good 
say,  that  we  may  cure  it. 

'  For  the  black  fumes  which  rise  in  your  mind,  I  can  prescribe 
nothing  but  that  you  disperse  them  by  honest  business  or  innocent 
pleasure,  and  by  reading,  sometimes  easy  and  sometimes  serious. 
Change  of  place  is  useful ;  and  I  hope  that  your  residence  at  Auch- 
inleck  will  have  many  good  effects  '.  ****** 


Piozzi  Letters,  i.  223.  He  was  the  guest  of  Mr.  Coulson,  a  Fellow  of 
University  College.  On  June  6,  he  wrote  : — '  Such  is  the  uncertainty 
of  all  human  things  that  Mr.  Coulson  has  quarrelled  with  me.  He 
says  I  raise  the  laugh  upon  him,  and  he  is  an  independent  man,  and 
all  he  has  is  his  own,  and  he  is  not  used  to  such  things.'  lb.  p.  226. 
An  eye-witness  told  Mr.  Croker  that  '  Coulson  was  going  out  on  a 
country  living,  and  talking  of  it  with  the  same  pomp  as  to  Lord  Stow- 
ell.'  [He  had  expressed  to  him  his  doubts  whether,  after  living  so 
long  in  'Ccio.  great  luorld,  he  might  not  grow  weary  of  the  comparative 
retirement  of  a  country  parish.  Croker's  BosivcU,  p.  425.]  Johnson 
chose  to  imagine  his  becoming  an  archdeacon,  and  made  himself 
merry  at  Coulson's  expense.  At  last  they  got  to  warm  words,  and 
Johnson  concluded  the  debate  by  exclaiming  emphatically — '  Sir,  hav- 
ing meant  you  no  offence,  I  will  make  you  no  apology.'  lb.  p.  458. 
The  quarrel  was  made  up,  for  the  next  day  he  wrote  : — '  Coulson  and 
I  are  pretty  well  again.'     Piozzi  Letters,  i.  229. 

'  Boswell  wrote  to  Temple  on  Sept.  2  : — '  It  is  hardly  credible  how 
difficult  it  is  for  a  man  of  my  sensibility  to  support  existence  in  the 
family  where  I  now  am.  My  father,  whom  I  really  both  respect  and 
affectionate  (if  that  is  a  word,  for  it  is  a  different  feeling  from  that 
which  is  expressed  by  love,  which  I  can  say  of  you  from  my  soul),  is 
so  different  from  me.  We  divaricate  so  much,  as  Dr.  Johnson  said, 
that  I  am  often  hurt  when,  I  dare  say,  he  means  no  harm :  and  he 
has  a  method  of  treating  me  which  makes  me  feel  myself  like  a  timid 
boy,  which  to  Boswell  (comprehending  all  that  my  character  does  in 
my  own  imagination  and  in  that  of  a  wonderful  number  of  mankind) 
is  intolerable.  His  wife  too,  whom  in  my  conscience  I  cannot  con- 
demn for  any  capital  bad  quality,  is  so  narrow-minded,  and,  I  don't 
know  how,  so  set  upon  keeping  him  under  her  own  management,  and 
so  suspicious  and  so  sourishly  tempered  that  it  requires  the  utmost 

'That 


Aetat.  CG.]  Erse  manuscripts.  439 

'That  I  should  have  given  pain  to  Rasaj^,  I  am  sincerely  sorry; 
and  am  therefore  very  much  pleased  that  he  is  no  longer  uneasy. 
He  still  thinks  that  I  have  represented  him  as  personally  giving 
up  the  Chieftainship.  I  meant  only  that  it  was  no  longer  contested 
between  the  two  houses,  and  supposed  it  settled,  perhaps,  by  the 
cession  of  some  remote  generation,  in  the  house  of  Dunvegan.  I 
am  sorry  the  advertisement  was  not  continued  for  three  or  four 
times  in  the  paper. 

'  That  Lord  Monboddo  and  Mr.  Macqueen  should  controvert  a 
position  contrary  to  the  imaginary  interest  of  literary  or  national 
prejudice,  might  be  easily  imagined ;  but  of  a  standing  fact  there 
ought  to  be  no  controversy :  If  there  are  men  with  tails,  catch  an 
homo  caiidatus ;  if  there  was  writing  of  old  in  the  Highlands  or 
Hebrides,  in  the  Erse  language,  produce  the  manuscripts.  Where 
men  write,  they  will  write  to  one  another,  and  some  of  their  letters, 
in  families  studious  of  their  ancestry,  will  be  kept.  In  Wales  there 
are  many  manuscripts. 

'  I  have  now  three  parcels  of  Lord  Hailes's  history,  which  I  pur- 
pose to  return  all  the  next  week :  that  his  respect  for  my  little  ob- 
servations should  keep  his  work  in  suspense,  makes  one  of  the 
evils  of  my  journey.  It  is  in  our  language,  I  think,  a  new  mode 
of  history,  which  tells  all  that  is  wanted,  and,  I  suppose,  all  that  is 
known,  without  laboured  splendour  of  language,  or  affected  subtilty 
of  conjecture.  The  exactness  of  his  dates  raises  my  wonder.  He 
seems  to  have  the  closeness  of  Henault '  without  his  constraint. 

'  Mrs.  Thrale  was  so  entertained  with  your  jfounial",  that  she 
almost  read  herself  blind.     She  has  a  great  regard  for  you. 

exertion  of  practical  philosophy  to  keep  myself  quiet.  I  however 
have  done  so  all  this  week  to  admiration  :  nay,  I  have  appeared  good- 
humoured  ;  but  it  has  cost  me  drinking  a  considerable  quantity  of 
strong  beer  to  dull  my  faculties.'     Letters  of  Boswell,  p.  21 5. 

'  Voltaire  wrote  of  Renault's  Abrege  de  IHistoirc  de  la  France : — 
'  II  a  ete  dans  I'histoire  ce  que  Fontenelle  a  ete  dans  la  philosophic. 
II  I'a  rendue  familierc.'  Voltaire's  Works,  xvii.  99.  With  a  quota- 
tion from  Henault,  Carlyle  begins  his  French  Revolution. 

'  '^ly  Journal  of  a  Tour  to  the  Hebrides,  which  that  lady  read  in  the 
original  manuscript.  Boswell.  Johnson  wrote  to  Mrs.  Thrale, '  May 
22,  1775  :— I  am  not  sorry  that  you  read  Bos  well 'syf/zr^a/.  Is  it  not 
a  merry  piece  ?  There  is  much  in  it  about  poor  me.'  Pioz::i  Letters, 
i.  220.  '  June  1 1,  1775.  You  never  told  me,  and  I  omitted  to  inquire, 
how  you  were  entertained  by  Boswell 's/^«r«rt/.  One  luould  think  the 
man  had  been  hired  to  be  a  spy  upon  me.     He  was  very  diligent,  and 

'Of 


440 


Mrs.  Boswell.  [a.d.  1775. 


'  Of  Mrs.  Boswell,  though  she  knows  in  her  heart  that  she  does 
not  love  me,  I  am  always  glad  to  hear  any  good,  and  hope  that 
she  and  the  little  dear  ladies  will  have  neither  sickness  nor  any 
other  affliction.  But  she  knows  that  she  does  not  care  what  be- 
comes of  me,  and  for  that  she  may  be  sure  that  I  think  her  very 
much  to  blame. 

'  Never,  my  dear  Sir,  do  you  take  it  into  your  head  to  think  that 
I  do  not  love  you ;  you  may  settle  yourself  in  full  confidence  both 
of  my  love  and  my  esteem ;  I  love  you  as  a  kind  man,  I  value  you 
as  a  worthy  man,  and  hope  in  time  to  reverence  you  as  a  man  of 
exemplary  piety.  I  hold  you,  as  Hamlet  has  it,  "in  my  heart  of 
hearts  ',"  and  therefore,  it  is  little  to  say,  that  I  am,  Sir, 

'  Your  affectionate  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 

'  London,  Aug.  27,  1775.' 

To  THE  Same. 
'Sir, 

'  If  in  these  papers  ^  there  is  little  alteration  attempted,  do  not 
suppose  me  negligent.  I  have  read  them  perhaps  more  closely 
than  the  rest ;  but  I  find  nothing  worthy  of  an  objection. 

'  Write  to  me  soon,  and  write  often,  and  tell  me  all  your  honest 

heart. 

'  I  am,  Sir, 

'  Yours  affectionately, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'Aug.  30,  I775-' 

To  THE  Same. 
'My  dear  Sir, 

'  I  now  write  to  you,  lest  in  some  of  your  freaks  and  humours 
you  should  fancy  yourself  neglected.  Such  fancies  I  must  entreat 
you  never  to  admit,  at  least  never  to  indulge  :  for  my  regard  for 
you  is  so  radicated  and  fixed,  that  it  is  become  part  of  my  mind, 
and  cannot  be  effaced  but  by  some  cause  uncommonly  violent ; 
therefore,  whether  I  write  or  not,  set  your  thoughts  at  rest.     I  now 

caught  opportunities  of  writing  from  time  to  time.'  lb.  p.  233.  I 
suspect  that  the  words  I  have  marked  by  italics  are  not  Johnson's, 
but  are  Mrs.  Piozzi's  interpolation. 

'  '  In  my  heart  of  heart!     Hatnlet,  act  iii.  sc.  2. 

*  Another  parcel  of  Lord  Hailes's  Annals  of  Scotland.     Boswell. 

write 


Aetat.  66.]  Johiisons  tour  to  France.  441 

write  to  tell  you  that  I  shall  not  very  soon  write  again,  for  I  am  to 

set  out  to-morrow  on  another  journey. 

******* 

'Your  friends  are  all  well  at  Streatham,  and  in  Leicester-fields'. 
Make  my  compliments  to  Mrs.  Boswell,  if  she  is  in  good  humour 
with  me. 

'  I  am,  Sir,  &c. 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'September  14, 1775.' 

What  he  mentions  in  such  light  terms  as, '  I  am  to  set 
out  to-morrow  on  another  journey,'  I  soon  afterwards  dis- 
covered was  no  less  than  a  tour  to  France  with  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Thrale.  This  was  the  only  time  in  his  life  that  he 
went  upon  the  Continent. 


'To  Mr.  Robert  Levet. 

'Sept.  18",  1775. 
Calais. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'We  are  here  in  France,  after  a  very  pleasing  passage  of  no 
more  than  six  hours.  I  know  not  when  I  shall  write  again,  and 
therefore  I  write  now,  though  you  cannot  suppose  that  I  have 
much  to  say.  You  have  seen  France  yourself  ^  From  this  place 
we  are  going  to  Rouen,  and  from  Rouen  to  Paris,  where  Mr.  Thrale 
designs  to  stay  about  five  or  six  weeks.  We  have  a  regular  rec- 
ommendation to  the  English  resident,  so  we  shall  not  be  taken  for 
vagabonds.  We  think  to  go  one  way  and  return  another,  and  for 
[?  see]  as  much  as  we  can.  I  will  try  to  speak  a  little  French*;  I 
tried  hitherto  but  little,  but  I  spoke  sometimes.  If  I  heard  better, 
I  suppose  I  should  learn  faster.     I  am,  Sir, 

'  Your  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 

'  Where  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  lived.     BoswELL. 

^  Johnson's  birthday.  In  Pr.  and  Med.  p.  143,  is  a  prayer  which  was, 
he  writes, '  composed  at  Calais  in  a  sleepless  night,  and  used  before 
the  morn  at  Notre  Dame.' 

^  See  ante,  i.  282,  note  i. 

*  '  While  Johnson  was  in  France,  he  was  generally  very  resolute  in 
speaking  Latin.'     Sec  posi,  under  Nov.  12, 1775. 

To 


442  A  letter  from  Paris,  [a.d.  1775. 

To  THE  Same. 

'  Paris,  Oct.  22,  1775. 

'Dear  Sir, 

'  We  are  still  here,  commonly  very  busy  in  looking  about  us. 
We  have  been  to-day  at  Versailles.  You  have  seen  it,  and  I  shall 
not  describe  it.  We  came  yesterday  from  Fontainebleau,  where 
the  Court  is  now.  \\'e  went  to  see  the  King  and  Queen  at  dinner, 
and  the  Queen  was  so  impressed  by  Miss ',  that  she  sent  one  of 
the  Gentlemen  to  enquire  who  she  was.  I  find  all  true  that  you 
have  ever  told  me  of  Paris.  Mr.  Thrale  is  very  liberal,  and  keeps 
us  two  coaches,  and  a  very  fine  table  ;  but  I  think  our  cookery 
very  bad  ^  Mrs.  Thrale  got  into  a  convent  of  English  nuns,  and  I 
talked  with  her  through  the  grate,  and  I  am  very  kindly  used  by 
the  English  Benedictine  friars.  But  upon  the  whole  I  cannot 
make  much  acquaintance  here  ;  and  though  the  churches,  palaces, 
and  some  private  houses  are  very  magnificent,  there  is  no  very 
great  pleasure  after  having  seen  many,  in  seeing  more ;  at  least 
the  pleasure,  whatever  it  be,  must  some  time  have  an  end,  and  we 
are  beginning  to  think  when  we  shall  come  home.  Mr.  Thrale 
calculates  that,  as  we  left  Streatham  on  the  fifteenth  of  September, 
we  shall  see  it  again  about  the  fifteenth  of  November. 

'  I  think  I  had  not  been  on  this  side  of  the  sea  five  days  before 
I  found  a  sensible  improvement  in  my  health.  I  ran  a  race  in  the 
rain  this  day,  and  beat  Baretti.  Baretti  is  a  fine  fellow,  and  speaks 
French,  I  think,  quite  as  well  as  English  \ 

'  Make  my  compliments  to  Mrs.  Williams  ;  and  give  my  love  to 
Francis ;  and  tell  my  friends  that  I  am  not  lost. 
'  I  am,  dear  Sir, 

'  Your  affectionate  humble,  &:c. 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 

'To  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson. 

'  Edinburgh,  Oct.  24,  1775. 
'  My  dear  Sir, 

'  If  I  had  not  been   informed  that  you  were  at  Paris,  you 

should  have  had   a  letter  from  me  by  the  earliest  opportunity, 

'  Miss  Thrale.     Boswell. 

'  In  );\\<~,  Journal  \iQ.  records  '  their  meals  are  gross'  {post,  Oct.  10). 
We  may  doubt  therefore  Mrs.  Piozzi's  statement  that  he  said  of  the 
French  :  '  They  have  few  sentiments,  but  they  express  them  neatly ; 
they  have  little  meat  too,  but  they  dress  it  well.'    Piozzi's  Ancc.  p.  102. 

^  See  ante,  i.  419,  note. 

■   announcine 


Aetat.  66.]  BosweWs  SOU  and  heir.  443 

announcing  the  birth  of  my  son,  on  the  9th  instant ;  I  have  named 
him  Alexander  \  after  my  father.  I  now  write,  as  I  suppose  your 
fellow  traveller,  Mr.  Thrale,  will  return  to  London  this  week,  to 
attend  his  duty  in  Parliament,  and  that  you  will  not  stay  behind 
him. 

'  I  send  another  parcel  of  Lord  Hailes's  Annals.  I  have  under- 
taken to  solicit  you  for  a  favour  to  him,  which  he  thus  requests  in 
a  letter  to  me  :  "I  intend  soon  to  give  you  The  Life  of  Robert 
Bruce,  which  you  will  be  pleased  to  transmit  to  Dr.  Johnson.  I 
wish  that  you  could  assist  me  in  a  fancy  which  I  have  taken,  of 
getting  Dr.  Johnson  to  draw  a  character  of  Robert  Bruce,  from  the 
account  that  I  give  of  that  prince.  If  he  finds  materials  for  it  in 
my  work,  it  will  be  a  proof  that  I  have  been  fortunate  in  selecting 
the  most  striking  incidents." 

'  I  suppose  by  The  Life  of  Robert  B nice,  his  Lordship  means  that 
part  of  his  Afinals  which  relates  the  history  of  that  prince,  and  not 
a  separate  work. 

'  Shall  we  have  A  journey  to  Paris  from  you  in  the  winter  ? 
You  will,  I  hope,  at  any  rate  be  kind  enough  to  give  me  some  ac- 
count of  your  French  travels  very  soon,  for  I  am  very  impatient. 
\Miat  a  different  scene  have  you  viewed  tliis  autumn,  from  that 
which  you  viewed  in  autumn  1773  !  I  ever  am,  my  dear  Sir, 
'  Your  much  obliged  and 

'  Affectionate  humble  servant, 

'James  Bos  well.' 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
'  Dear  Sir,  « 

'  I  am  glad  that  the  young  Laird  is  born,  and  an  end,  as  I 
hope,  put  to  the  only  difference  that  you  can  ever  have  with  Mrs. 
Boswell ".  I  know  that  she  does  not  love  me ;  but  I  intend  to  per- 
sist in  wishing  her  well  till  I  get  the  better  of  her. 

'  Paris  is,  indeed,  a  place  very  different  from  the  Hebrides,  but 
it  is  to  a  hasty  traveller  not  so  fertile  of  novelty,  nor  affords  so 

'  Boswell  wrote  to  Temple:  —  'You  know,  my  dearest  friend,  of 
what  importance  this  is  to  me  ;  of  what  importance  it  is  to  the  family 
of  Auchinlcck,  lohich  yoti  may  be  well  convinced  is  my  supreme  object 
in  this  'world.'  Letters  of  Boswell,  p.  2 1 7.  Alexander  Boswell  was  killed 
in  a  duel  in  1822. 

^  This  alludes  to  my  old  feudal  principle  of  preferring  male  to 
female  succession.     Boswell.     See  jzJc^jY,  under  Jan.  10,  1776. 

many 


444  The  French  way  of  life.  [a.d.  1775. 

many  opportunities  of  remark.  I  cannot  pretend  to  tell  the  pub- 
lick  any  thing  of  a  place  better  known  to  many  of  my  readers  than 
to  myself.     We  can  talk  of  it  when  we  meet. 

'  I  shall  go  next  week  to  Streatham,  from  whence  I  purpose  to 
send  a  parcel  of  the  History  every  post.  Concerning  the  charac- 
ter of  Bruce,  I  can  only  say,  that  I  do  not  see  any  great  reason  for 
writing  it ;  but  I  shall  not  easily  deny  what  Lord  Hailes  and  you 
concur  in  desiring. 

'  I  have  been  remarkably  healthy  all  the  journey,  and  hope  you 
and  your  family  have  known  only  that  trouble  and  danger  which 
has  so  happily  terminated.  Among  all  the  congratulations  that 
you  may  receive,  I  hope  you  believe  none  more  warm  or  sincere, 
than  tiiose  of,  dear  Sir, 

'  Your  most  affectionate, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 

'  November  i6, 1775  '.' 

'To  Mrs.  Lucy  Porter,  in  Lichfield^. 

'Dear  Madam, 

'  This  week  I  came  home  from  Paris.  I  have  brought  you 
a  little  box,  which  I  thought  pretty ;  but  I  know  not  whether  it  is 
properly  a  snuffbox,  or  a  box  for  some  other  use.  I  will  send  it, 
when  I  can  find  an  opportunity.  I  have  been  through  the  whole 
journey  remarkably  well.  My  fellow-travellers  were  the  same 
whom  you  saw  at  Lichfield  ^  only  we  took  Baretti  with  us.  Paris 
is  not  so  fine  a  place  as  you  would  expect.  The  palaces  and 
churches,  however,  are  very  splendid  and  magnificent;  and  what 
would  please  you,  there  are  many  very  fine  pictures ;  but  I  do  not 
think  their  way  of  life  commodious  or  pleasant  \ 

'  He  wrote  to  Dr.  Taylor  on  the  same  day  :— '  I  came  back  last  Tues- 
day from  France.  Is  not  mine  a  kind  of  life  turned  upside  down .'' 
Fixed  to  a  spot  when  I  was  young,  and  roving  the  world  when  others 
are  contriving  to  sit  still,  I  am  wholly  unsettled.  I  am  a  kind  of  ship 
with  a  wide  sail,  and  without  an  anchor.'  Notes  arid  Queries,  6th  S., 
v.  422. 

^  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  many  years  previous  to  1775  he  cor- 
responded with  this  lady,  who  was  his  step-daughter,  but  none  of  his 
earlier  letters  to  her  have  been  preserved.  Boswell.  Many  of  these 
earlier  letters  were  printed  by  Malone  and  Croker  in  later  editions. 
See  i.  594. 

^  When  on  their  way  to  Wales.     July  7, 17 j^, post,  vol.  v. 

*  Smollett  wrote  {Travels,  i.  88)  : — 'Notwithstanding  the  gay  dis- 

'Let 


Aetat,  66.]         Letters  to  Mrs.  Lucy  Porter.  445 

'  Let  me  know  how  your  health  has  been  all  this  while.  I  hope 
the  fine  summer  has  given  you  strength  sufficient  to  encounter 
the  winter. 

'  Make  my  compliments  to  all  my  friends ;  and,  if  your  fingers 

will  let  you,  write  to  me,  or  let  your  maid  write,  if  it  be  troublesome 

to  you.     I  am,  dear  Madam, 

'Your  most  affectionate  humble  servant, 

'Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  November  16, 1775.' 

To  THE  Same. 
'  Dear  Madam, 

'  Some  weeks  ago  I  wrote  to  you,  to  tell  you  that  I  was  just 

come  home  from  a  ramble,  and  hoped  that  I  should  have  heard 

from  you.     I  am  afraid  winter  has  laid  hold  on  your  fingers,  and 

hinders  you  from  writing.     However,  let  somebody  write,  if  you 

cannot,  and  tell  me  how  you  do,  and  a  little  of  what  has  happened 

at  Lichfield  among  our  friends.     I  hope  you  are  all  well. 

'  When  I  was  in  France,  I  thought  myself  growing  young,  but 
am  afraid  that  cold  weather  will  take  part  of  my  new  vigour  from 
me.  Let  us,  however,  take  care  of  ourselves,  and  lose  no  part  of 
our  health  by  negligence. 

'  I  never  knew  whether  you  received  the  Commentary  on  the  Nciu 
Testa?neJit  and  the  Trai'e/s,  and  the  glasses. 

'  Do,  my  dear  love,  write  to  me ;  and  do  not  let  us  forget  each 
other.  This  is  the  season  of  good  wishes,  and  I  wish  you  all  good. 
I  have  not  lately  seen  Mr.  Porter ',  nor  heard  of  him.  Is  he  with 
you? 

'  Be  pleased  to  made  my  compliments  to  Mrs.  Adey,  and  Mrs. 
Cobb,  and  all  my  friends ;  and  when  I  can  do  any  good,  let  me 
know. 

'  I  am,  dear  Madam, 

'  Yours  most  affectionately, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  December,  1775.' 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  he  did  not  write  an  account  of 
his  travels  in  France ;  for  as  he  is  reported  to  have  once 

position  of  the  French,  their  houses  are  all  gloomy.  After  all  it  is  in 
England  only  where  we  must  look  for  cheerful  apartments,  gay  furni- 
ture, neatness,  and  convenience.' 

'  Son  of  Mrs.  Johnson,  by  her  first  husband.     Boswell. 

said, 


44^  JoJnisons  French  Journal.  [a.d.  1775. 

said,  that '  he  could  write  the  Life  of  a  BroomstickV  so,  not- 
withstanding so  many  former  travellers  have  exhausted  al- 
most every  subject  for  remark  in  that  great  kingdom,  his 
very  accurate  observation,  and  peculiar  vigour  of  thought 
and  illustration,  would  have  produced  a  valuable  work.  Dur- 
ing his  visit  to  it,  which  lasted  but  about  two  months,  he 
wrote  notes  or  minutes  of  what  he  saw.  He  promised  to 
show  me  them,  but  I  neglected  to  put  him  in  mind  of  it ; 
and  the  greatest  part  of  them  has  been  lost,  or  perhaps, 
destroyed  in  a  precipitate  burning  of  his  papers  a  few  days 
before  his  death,  which  must  ever  be  lamented.  One  small 
paper-book,  however,  entitled  '  France  II,'  has  been  pre- 
served, and  is  in  my  possession.  It  is  a  diurnal  register  of 
his  life  and  observations,  from  the  loth  of  October  to  the 
4th  of  November,  inclusive,  being  twenty-six  days,  and  shows 
an  extraordinary  attention  to  various  minute  particulars. 
Being  the  only  memorial  of  this  tour  that  remains,  my  read- 
ers, I  am  confident,  will  peruse  it  with  pleasure,  though  his 
notes  are  very  short,  and  evidently  written  only  to  assist  his 
own  recollection. 

'Oct.  io.  Tuesday.  We  saw  the  Ecole  Militaire,  in  which  one 
hundred  and  fifty  young  boys  are  educated  for  the  army.  They 
have  arms  of  different  sizes,  according  to  the  age  ; — flints  of  wood. 
The  building  is  very  large,  but  nothing  fine,  except  the  council- 
room.  The  French  have  large  squares  in  the  windows ;  —  they 
make  good  iron  palisades.     Their  meals  are  gross. 

'We  visited  the  Observatory,  a  large  building  of  a  great  height. 
The  upper  stones  of  the  parapet  very  large,  but  not  cramped  with 
iron.  The  flat  on  the  top  is  very  extensive ;  but  on  the  insulated 
part  there  is  no  parapet.  Though  it  was  broad  enough,  I  did  not 
care  to  go  upon  it.     Maps  were  printing  in  one  of  the  rooms. 

'  We  walked  to  a  small  convent  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Oratory. 
In  the  reading-desk  of  the  refectory  lay  the  lives  of  the  Saints. 

'  '  A  gentleman  said, "  Surely  that  Vanessa  must  be  an  extraordi- 
nary woman,  that  could  inspire  the  Dean  to  write  so  finely  upon  her." 
Mrs.  Johnson  [Stella]  smiled,  and  answered  "that  she  thought  that 
point  not  quite  so  clear;  for  it  was  well  known  the  Dean  could  write 
finely  upon  a  broomstick."  '     Johnson's  Works,  viii.  210. 

'Oct.  II. 


Aetat.  66.]  The  poor  in  France.  447 

'Oct.  II.  Wednesday.  We  went  to  see  Hotel  dc  ChatIois\  a 
house  not  very  large,  but  very  elegant.  One  of  the  rooms  was  gilt 
to  a  degree  that  I  never  saw  before.  The  upper  part  for  servants 
and  their  masters  was  pretty. 

'  Thence  we  went  to  Mr.  Monville's,  a  house  divided  into  small 
apartments,  furnished  with  effeminate  and  minute  elegance. — 
Porphyry. 

'  Thence  we  went  to  St.  Roque's  church,  which  is  very  large  ; — 
the  lower  part  of  the  pillars  incrusted  with  marble. — Three  chapels 
behind  the  high  altar ; — the  last  a  mass  of  low  arches. — Altars,  I 
believe,  all  round. 

'  We  passed  through  Place  de  Veiidome,  a  fine  square,  about  as 
big  as  Hanover-square. — Inhabited  by  the  high  families. — Lewis 
XIV.  on  horse-back  in  the  middle. 

'  Monville  is  the  son  of  a  farmer-general.  In  the  house  of  Chat- 
lois  is  a  room  furnished  with  japan,  fitted  up  in  Europe. 

'We  dined  with  Boccage",  the  Marquis  Blanchetti,  and  his  lady. 
— The  sweetmeats  taken  by  the  Marchioness  Blanchetti,  after  ob- 
serving that  they  were  dear.  —  Mr.  Le  Roy,  Count  Manucci,  the 
Abbe,  the  Prior  ^,  and  Father  W^ilson,  who  staid  with  me,  till  I  took 
him  home  in  the  coach. 

'  Bathiani  is  gone. 

'  The  French  have  no  laws  for  the  maintenance  of  their  poor. — 
Monk  not  necessarily  a  priest. — Benedictines  rise  at  four ;  are  at 
church  an  hour  and  half ;  at  church  again  half  an  hour  before,  half 
an  hour  after,  dinner ;  and  again  from  half  an  hour  after  seven  to 
eight.  They  may  sleep  eight  hours.  —  Bodily  labour  wanted  in 
monasteries. 

'  The  poor  taken  to  hospitals,  and  miserably  kept. — Monks  in 
the  convent  fifteen  : — accounted  poor. 

'Oct.  12.  Thursday.  We  went  to  the  Gobelins. — Tapestry 
makes  a  good  picture ; — imitates  flesh  exactly. — One  piece  with  a 
gold  ground  ; — the  birds  not  exactly  coloured. — Thence  we  went 


'  Horace  Walpole  wrote  from  Paris  this  autumn  :— '  I  have  not  yet 
had  time  to  visit  the  Hotel  du  Chatelct.'  Letters,  vi.  260.  On  July 
31st,  1789,  writing  of  the  violence  of  the  mob,  he  says  : — 'The  hotel  of 
the  Due  de  Chatelet,  lately  built  and  superb,  has  been  assaulted,  and 
the  furniture  sold  by  auction.'     It?,  ix.  202. 

'  See  post,  under  Nov.  12,  1775,  note,  and  June  25, 1784. 

"  The  Prior  of  the  Convent  of  the  Benedictines  where  Johnson  had 
a  cell  appropriated  to  him.     See  post,  Oct.  31,  and  under  Nov.  12. 

to 


44^  Books  in  a  ladys  closet.  [a.d.  1775. 

to  the  King's  cabinet;  —  very  neat,  not,  perhaps,  perfect.  —  Gold 
ore. — Candles  of  the  candle -tree. — Seeds. — Woods.  Thence  to 
Gagnier's  house,  where  I  saw  rooms  nine,  furnished  with  a  profu- 
sion of  wealth  and  elegance  which  I  never  had  seen  before. — 
Vases. — Pictures. — The  Dragon  china. — The  lustre  said  to  be  of 
crystal,  and  to  have  cost  3,5001. — The  whole  furniture  said  to  have 
cost  125,0001. — Damask  hangings  covered  with  pictures. — Porphy- 
ry.—  This  house  struck  me.  —  Then  we  waited  on  the  ladies  to 
Monville's. — Captain  Irwin  with  us  '. — Spain. — County  towns  all 
beggars. — At  Dijon  he  could  not  find  the  way  to  Orleans. — Cross 
roads  of  France  very  bad. — Five  soldiers. — Woman. — Soldiers  es- 
caped.  The  Colonel  would  not  lose  five  men  for  the  death  of 

one  woman. — The  magistrate  cannot  seize  a  soldier  but  by  the 
Colonel's  permission. — Good  inn  at  Nismes. — Moors  of  Barbary 
fond  of  Englishmen. — Gibraltar  eminently  healthy ; — It  has  beef 
from  Barbary; — There  is  a  large  garden. — Soldiers  sometimes  fall 
from  the  rock. 

'  Oct.  13.  Friday.  I  staid  at  home  all  day,  only  went  to  find  the 
Prior,  who  was  not  at  home. — I  read  something  in  Canus  '^ — Nee 
admiror,  nee  multum  laudo. 

'Oct.  14.  Saturday.  We  went  to  the  house  of  Mr.  Argenson, 
which  was  almost  wainscotted  with  looking-glasses,  and  covered 
with  gold. — The  ladies'  closet  wainscotted  with  large  squares  of 
glass  over  painted  paper.  They  always  place  mirrours  to  reflect 
their  rooms. 

'  Then  we  went  to  Julien's,  the  Treasurer  of  the  Clergy : — 30,000!. 
a  year. — The  house  has  no  very  large  room,  but  is  set  with  mir- 
rours, and  covered  with  gold. — Books  of  wood  here,  and  in  another 
library. 

'At  D********'s'  I  looked  into  the  books  in  the  lady's  closet, 
and,  in  contempt,  shewed  them  to  Mr.  T. — Frinee  Tiii* ;  Bibl.  des 

'  The  rest  of  this  paragraph  appears  to  be  a  minute  of  what  was 
told  by  Captain  Irwin.     Boswell. 

-  Melchior  Canus,  a  celebrated  Spanish  Dominican,  who  died  at 
Toledo,  in  1560.  He  wrote  a  treatise  De  Loeis  Theologicis,  in  twelve 
books.    Boswell. 

^  D'Argenson's.     Croker. 

*  See  Macaulay's  Essays,  i.  355,  and  Mr.  Croker's  answer  in  his  note 
on  this  passage.  His  notion  that  'this  book  was  exhibited  purposely 
on  the  lady's  table,  in  the  expectation  that  her  English  visitors  would 
think  it  a  literary  curiosity,'  seems  absurd.     He  does  not  choose  to 

Fdcs, 


Aetat.  G6.]  Visil  to  Mr.  Frero7t.  449 

Fees,  and  other  books. — She  was  offended,  and  shut  up,  as  we  heard 
afterwards,  her  apartment. 

'  Then  we  went  to  JuUen  Le  Roy,  the  King's  watch-maker,  a  man 
of  character  in  his  business,  who  shewed  a  small  clock  made  to  find 
the  longitude  '. — A  decent  man. 

'Afterwards  we  saw  the  Palais  MarchatuP,  and  the  Courts  of 
Justice,  civil  and  criminal. — Queries  on  the  SeHette^. — This  build- 
ing has  the  old  Gothick  passages,  and  a  great  appearance  of  an- 
tiquity.— Three  hundred  prisoners  sometimes  in  the  gaol  \ 

'  Much  disturbed  ;  hope  no  ill  will  be  \ 

'  In  the  afternoon  I  visited  Mr.  Freron  the  journalist ".  He 
spoke  Latin  very  scantily,  but  seemed  to  understand  me.  —  His 
house  not  splendid,  but  of  commodious  size. — His  family,  wife,  son, 
and  daughter,  not  elevated  but  decent. — I  was  pleased  with  my 
reception. — He  is  to  translate  my  books,  which  I  am  to  send  him 
with  notes. 


remember  the  ' Bibl.  dcs  Fees  and  other  books.'  Since  I  wrote  this 
note  Mr.  Napier  has  published  an  edition  of  Boswell,  in  which  this 
question  is  carefully  examined  (ii.  550).     He  sides  with  Macaulay. 

'  '  Si  quelque  invention  peut  suppleer  a  la  connaissance  qui  nous 
est  refusee  des  longitudes  sur  la  mer,  c'est  celle  du  plus  habile  horloger 
de  France  (M.  Leroi)  qui  dispute  cette  invention  a  I'Angleterre.'  Vol- 
taire, Steele  de  Louis  XV,  ch.  xliii. 

'■'  The  Palais  Marchand  was  properly  only  the  stalls  which  were 
placed  along  some  of  the  galleries  of  the  Palais.  They  have  been  all 
swept  away  in  Louis  Philippe's  restoration  of  the  Palais.     Crokkr. 

^  '  Petit  siege  de  bois  sur  lequel  on  faisait  asseoir,  pour  les  interro- 
ger,  ceux  qui  etaient  accuses  d'un  delit  pouvant  faire  encourir  une 
peine  afflictive.'     Littre. 

*  The  Conciergerie,  before  long  to  be  crowded  with  the  victims  of 
the  Revolution. 

'''  This  passage,  which  so  many  think  superstitious,  reminds  me  of 
Archbishop  Laud's  Diary.  Boswell.  Laud,  for  instance,  on  Oct.  27, 
1640,  records  : — '  In  my  upper  study  hung  my  picture  taken  by  the 
life  ;  and  coming  in,  I  found  it  fallen  down  upon  the  face,  and  lying 
on  the  floor,  the  string  being  broken  by  which  it  was  hanged  against 
the  wall.  I  am  almost  every  day  threatened  with  my  ruin  in  Parlia- 
ment. God  grant  this  be  no  omen.'  Perhaps  there  was  nothing  su- 
perstitious in  Johnson's  entry.  He  may  have  felt  ill  in  mind  or  body, 
and  dreaded  to  become  worse. 

*  For  a  brief  account  of  Freron,  father  and  son,  see  Carlylc's  French 
Revolution,  part  ii.  bk.  i.  ch.  iv, 

II.— 29  'Oct.  15. 


450  Airs.  Fermor.  [a.d.  1775. 

'  Oct.  15.  Sunday.  At  Choisi,  a  royal  palace  on  the  banks  of  the 
Seine,  about  7  m.  from  Paris. — The  terrace  noble  along  the  river. 
— The  rooms  numerous  and  grand,  but  not  discriminated  from 
other  palaces. — The  chapel  beautiful,  but  small. — China  globes. 
— Inlaid  tables. — Labyrinth. — Sinking  table  '. — Toilet  tables. 

'Oct.  16.  Monday.  The  Palais  Royal  very  grand,  large,  and 
lofty. — A  very  great  collection  of  pictures. — Three  of  Raphael. — 
Two  Holy  Family. — One  small  piece  of  M.  Angelo. — One  room  of 
Rubens. — I  thought  the  pictures  of  Raphael  fine  \ 

'The  Thuilleries. — Statues. — Venus.— ^n.  and  Anchises  in  his 
arms. — Nilus. — Many  more.  The  walks  not  open  to  mean  per- 
sons.—  Chairs  at  night  hired  for  two  sous  apiece.  —  Pont  tour- 
nant '. 

'  Austin   Nuns.  —  Grate.  —  Mrs.  Fermor,  Abbess  *.  —  She  knew 

Pope,  and  thought  him  disagreeable. — Mrs. has  many  books  ' ; 

— has  seen  life. — Their  frontlet  disagreeable. — Their  hood. — Their 
life  easy. — Rise  about  five  ;  hour  and  half  in  chapel. — Dine  at  ten. 
— Another  hour  and  half  at  chapel ;  half  an  hour  about  three,  and 
half  an  hour  more  at  seven  : — four  hours  in  chapel. — A  large  gar- 
den.— Thirteen  pensioners  °. — Teacher  complained. 

'  A  round  table,  the  centre  of  which  descended  by  machinery  to  a 
lower  floor,  so  that  supper  might  be  served  without  the  presence  of 
servants.  It  was  invented  by  Lewis  XV.  during  the  favour  of  Madame 
du  Barri.     Croker. 

"  See  a7ite,  i.  421,  note. 

'  Before  the  Revolution  the  passage  from  the  garden  of  the  Tuileries 
into  the  Place  Louis  XV.  was  over  z.  pont  totirtiatit.     Croker. 

^  The  niece  of  Arabella  Fermor,  the  Belinda  of  the  Rape  of  the 
Lock.  Johnson  thus  mentions  this  lady  (  Works,  viii.  246)  : — '  At  Paris, 
a  few  years  ago,  a  niece  of  Mrs.  Fermor,  who  presided  in  an  English 
convent,  mentioned  Pope's  works  with  very  little  gratitude,  rather  as 
an  insult  than  an  honour.'  She  is  no  doubt  the  Lady  Abbess  men- 
tioned post,  March  15,  1776.  She  told  Mrs.  Piozzi  in  1784  'that  she 
believed  there  was  but  little  comfort  to  be  found  in  a  house  that  har- 
boured poets ;  for  that  she  remembered  Mr.  Pope's  praise  made  her 
aunt  very  troublesome  and  conceited,  while  his  numberless  caprices 
would  have  employed  ten  servants  to  wait  on  him.'  V\oiz\s  Journey, 
\.  20. 

*  Mrs.  Thrale  wrote,  on  Sept.  18, 1777  : — '  When  Mr.  Thrale  dismisses 
me,  I  am  to  take  refuge  among  the  Austin  Nuns,  and  study  Virgil 
with  dear  Miss  Canning.'     Piozzi  Letters,  i.  374. 

"  PensiotiJiaires,  pupils  who  boarded  in  the  convent. 

'At 


Aetat.  66.]      Johusoii  s  affectioii  for  his  wife.  45 1 

'  At  the  Boulevards  saw  nothing,  yet  was  glad  to  be  there. — 
Rope-dancing  and  farce. — Egg  dance. 

'  N.  [Note.]  Near  Paris,  whether  on  week-days  or  Sundays,  the 
roads  empty. 

'Oct.  17.  Tuesday.     At  the  Palais  Marchand  I  bought 
A  snuff-box  ',  24  L. 

6 

Table  book  15 

Scissars  3  p  [pair]  18 


63 — 2   12  6° 

'  We  heard  the  lawyers  plead. — N.  As  many  killed  at  Paris  as 
there  are  days  in  the  year.  Chambrc  dc  question '. — Tournelle  ^  at 
the  Palais  Marchand. — An  old  venerable  building. 

'  The  Palais  Bourbon,  belonging  to  the  Prince  of  Conde.  Only 
one  small  wing  shown  ; — lofty  ; — splendid  ; — gold  and  glass. — The 
battles  of  the  great  Conde  are  painted  in  one  of  the  rooms.  The 
present  Prince  a  grandsire  at  thirty-nine  ^ 

'  The  sight  of  palaces,  and  other  great  buildings,  leaves  no  very 
distinct  images,  unless  to  those  who  talk  of  them.  As  I  entered, 
my  wife  was  in  my  mind  ° :  she  would  have  been  pleased.  Having 
now  nobody  to  please,  I  am  little  pleased. 

*  N.  In  France  there  is  no  middle  rank '. 

'  So  many  shops  open,  that  Sunday  is  little  distinguished  at  Paris. 
— The  palaces  of  Louvre  and  Thuilleries  granted  out  in  lodgings. 

'  In  the  Palais  de  Bourbon,  gilt  globes  of  metal  at  the  fire-place. 

'  The  French  beds  commended.  —  Much  of  the  marble,  only 
paste. 


-  He  brought  back  a  snuff-box  for  Miss  Porter.     See  ante,  ii.  ^\j,. 

*  63  livres=;^2  lis.  6d. 

^  Torture-chamber.     See  ante,  i.  540,  note  2. 

*  'Au  parlement  de  Paris  la  chambre  chargee  des  affaires  crimi- 
nelles.'     Littre. 

*  The  grandson  was  the  Duke  d'Enghien  who  was  put  to  death  by 
Napoleon  Bonaparte  in  1804. 

"  His  tender  affection  for  his  departed  wife,  of  which  there  are  many 
evidences  in  his  Prayers  and  Meditations,  appears  very  feelingly  in 
this  passage.  Boswell.  '  On  many  occasions  I  think  what  she  [his 
wife]  would  have  said  or  done.  When  I  saw  the  sea  at  Brighthelm- 
stone,  I  wished  for  her  to  have  seen  it  with  me.'     Pr.  and  Med.  p.  91. 

'  See  post,  ii.461, 

'  The 


452  The  French  Cotirt,  [a. d.  1775. 

'  The  Colosseum  a  mere  wooden  building,  at  least  much  of  it. 

'Oct.  18.  Wednesday.  We  went  to  Fontainebleau,  which  we 
found  a  large  mean  town,  crouded  with  people. — The  forest  thick 
Avith  woods,  very  extensive. — Manucci '  secured  us  lodgings. — The 
appearance  of  the  country  pleasant. — No  hills,  few  streams,  only 
one  hedge. — I  remember  no  chapels  nor  crosses  on  the  road. — 
Pavement  still,  and  rows  of  trees. 

'  N.  Nobody  but  mean  people  walk  in  Paris  ^ 

'Oct.  19.  Thursday.  At  Court,  we  saw  the  apartments; — the 
King's  bed-chamber  and  council-chamber  extremely  splendid. — 
Persons  of  all  ranks  in  the  external  rooms  through  which  the  family 
passes  : — servants  and  masters. — Brunet  with  us  the  second  time. 

'  The  introductor  came  to  us  ; — civil  to  me. — Presenting. — I  had 
scruples. — Not  necessary. — We  went  and  saw  the  King^  and  Queen 
at  dinner. — We  saw  the  other  ladies  at  dinner — Madame  Eliza- 
beth ■*,  with  the  Princess  of  Guimene. — At  night  we  went  to  a  com- 
edy. I  neither  saw  nor  heard. — Drunken  women. — Mrs.  Th.  pre- 
ferred one  to  the  other. 

'  Oct.  20.  Friday.  We  saw  the  Queen  mount  in  the  forest — 
Brown  habit ;  rode  aside :  one  lady  rode  aside.  —  The  Queen's 
horse  light  grey ;  martingale. — She  galloped. — We  then  went  to 
the  apartments,  and  admired  them. — Then  wandered  through  the 
palace. — In  the  passages,  stalls  and  shops. — Painting  in  Fresco 
by  a  great  master,  worn  out. — We  saw  the  King's  horses  and  dogs. 
— The  dogs  almost  all  English. — Degenerate. 

'The  horses  not  much  commended. — The  stables  cool ;  the  ken- 
nel filthy. 

'  At  night  the  ladies  went  to  the  opera.  I  refused,  but  should 
have  been  welcome. 

'  The  King  fed  himself  with  his  left  hand  as  we. 

'Saturday,  21.  In  the  night  I  got  ground. — We  came  home  to 
Paris. — I  think  we  did  not  see  the  chapel. — Tree  broken  by  the 
wind. — ^The  French  chairs  made  all  of  boards  painted. 

'  See  pos/,  iii.  102. 

^  Dr.  Moore  {Travels  m  Fra7ice,  i.  31)  says  that  in  Paris, '  those  who 
cannot  afford  carriages  skulk  behind  pillars,  or  run  into  shops,  to 
avoid  being  crushed  by  the  coaches,  which  are  driven  as  near  the 
wall  as  the  coachman  pleases.'  Only  on  the  Pont  Neuf,  and  the  Pont 
Royal,  and  the  quays  between  them  were  there,  he  adds,  foot-ways. 

^  Lewis  XVI. 

*  The  King's  sister,  who  was  guillotined  in  the  Reign  of  Terror. 

'  N.  Soldiers 


Aetat.  6G.]  Versailles.  453 

'  N.  Soldiers  at  the  court  of  justice. — Soldiers  not  amenable  to 
the  magistrates. — Dijon  woman  '. 

'  Faggots  in  the  palace. — Every  thing  slovenly,  except  in  the 
chief  rooms. — Trees  in  the  roads,  some  tall,  none  old,  many  very 
young  and  small. 

'  Women's  saddles  seem  ill  made. — Queen's  bridle  woven  with 
silver. — Tags  to  strike  the  horse. 

'Sunday,  Oct.  22.  To  Versailles \  a  mean  town.  Carriages  of 
business  passing. — Mean  shops  against  the  wall. — Our  way  lay 
through  Seve,  where  the  China  manufacture. — Wooden  bridge  at 
Seve,  in  the  way  to  Versailles. — The  palace  of  great  extent. — The 
front  long ;  I  saw  it  not  perfectly.  —  The  IMenagerie.  Cygnets 
dark ;  their  black  feet ;  on  the  ground  ;  tame. — Halcyons,  or  gulls. 
— Stag  and  hind,  young. — Aviary,  very  large  ;  the  net,  wire. — Black 
stag  of  China,  small.  —  Rhinoceros,  the  horn  broken  and  pared 
away,  which,  I  suppose,  will  grow ;  the  basis,  I  think,  four  inches 
'cross  •  the  skin  folds  like  loose  cloth  doubled  over  his  body,  and 
cross  his  hips ;  a  vast  animal,  though  young ;  as  big,  perhaps,  as 
four  oxen, — The  young  elephant,  with  his  tusks  just  appearing. — 
The  brown  bear  put  out  his  paws  ; — all  very  tame. — The  lion. — 
The  tigers  I  did  not  well  view.— The  camel,  or  dromedary  with 
t\vo  bunches  called  the  Huguin  •*,  taller  than  any  horse. — Two  cam- 
els with  one  bunch. — Among  the  birds  was  a  pelican,  who  being 
let  out,  went  to  a  fountain,  and  swam  about  to  catch  fish.  His  feet 
well  webbed :  he  dipped  his  head,  and  turned  his  long  bill  side- 
wise.     He  caught  two  or  three  fish,  but  did  not  eat  them. 

'Trianon  is  a  kind  of  retreat  appendant  to  Versailles.  It  has 
an  open  portico  ;  the  pavement,  and,  I  think,  the  pillars,  of  marble. 
— There  are  many  rooms,  which  I  do  not  distinctly  remember — 
A  table  of  porphyry,  about  five  feet  long,  and  between  two  and 
three  broad,  given  to  Louis  XIV.  by  the  Venetian  State. — In  the 
council-room  almost  all  that  was  not  door  or  window,  was,  I  think, 


'  See  ante,  ii.  448.     Boswell. 

°  '  When  at  Versailles,  the  people  showed  us  the  Theatre.  As  we 
stood  on  the  stage  looking  at  some  machinery  for  playhouse  pur- 
poses ;  "  Now  we  are  here,  what  shall  we  act,  Mr.  Johnson  : — The  Eng" 
lishman  in  Paris  "  ?  "  No,  no,"  replied  he,  "  we  will  try  to  act  Harry 
the  Fifth!"  Piozzi's  Ancc.  p.  10 r.  The  E7ig[ishman  in  Paris  is  a 
comedy  by  Foote. 

^  This  epithet  should  be  applied  to  this  animal,  with  one  bunch. 
Boswell. 

looking-glass. 


454  '^^^  ma^iufacture  of  lookmg-glasses.   [a.d.  1775. 

looking-glass. — Little  Trianon  is  a  small  palace  like  a  gentleman's 
house. — The  upper  floor  paved  with  brick. — Little  Vienne. — The 
court  is  ill  paved. — The  rooms  at  the  top  are  small,  fit  to  sooth  the 
imagination  with  privacy.  In  the  front  of  Versailles  are  small  ba- 
sons of  water  on  the  terrace,  and  other  basons,  I  think,  below  them. 
There  are  little  courts. — The  great  gallery  is  wainscotted  with  mir- 
rours,  not  very  large,  but  joined  by  frames.  I  suppose  the  large 
plates  were  not  yet  made. — The  play-house  was  very  large. — The 
chapel  I  do  not  remember  if  we  saw — We  saw  one  chapel,  but  I  am 
not  certain  whether  there  or  at  Trianon. — The  foreign  office  paved 
with  bricks. — The  dinner  half  a  Louis  each,  and,  I  think,  a  Louis 
over. — Money  given  at  Menagerie,  three  livres  ;  at  palace,  six  livres. 

'Oct.  23.  Monday.     Last  night  I  wrote  to  Levet. We  went 

to  see  the  looking-glasses  wrought.  They  come  from  Normandy 
in  cast  plates,  perhaps  the  third  of  an  inch  thick.  At  Paris  they 
are  ground  upon  a  marble  table,  by  rubbing  one  plate  upon  another 
with  grit  between  them.  The  various  sands,  of  which  there  are 
said  to  be  five,  I  could  not  learn.  The  handle,  by  which  the  up- 
per glass  is  moved,  has  the  form  of  a  wheel,  which  may  be  moved 
in  all  directions.  The  plates  are  sent  up  with  their  surfaces  ground, 
but  not  polished,  and  so  continue  till  they  are  bespoken,  lest  time 
should  spoil  the  surface,  as  we  were  told.  Those  that  are  to  be 
polished,  are  laid  on  a  table,  covered  with  several  thick  cloths,  hard 
strained,  that  the  resistance  may  be  equal ;  they  are  then  rubbed 
with  a  hand  rubber,  held  down  hard  by  a  contrivance  which  I  did 
not  well  understand.  The  powder  which  is  used  last  seemed  to 
me  to  be  iron  dissolved  in  aqua  fortis  :  they  called  it,  as  Baretti 
said,  marc  de  Veau  forte,  which  he  thought  was  dregs.  They  men- 
tioned vitriol  and  saltpetre.  The  cannon  ball  swam  in  the  quick- 
silver. To  silver  them,  a  leaf  of  beaten  tin  is  laid,  and  rubbed  with 
quicksilver,  to  which  it  unites.  Then  more  quicksilver  is  poured 
upon  it,  which,  by  its  mutual  [attraction]  rises  very  high.  Then  a 
paper  is  laid  at  the  nearest  end  of  the  plate,  over  which  the  glass 
is  slided  till  it  lies  upon  the  plate,  having  driven  much  of  the  quick- 
silver before  it.  It  is  then,  I  think,  pressed  upon  cloths,  and  then 
set  sloping  to  drop  the  superfluous  mercury ;  the  slope  is  daily 
heightened  towards  a  perpendicular. 

'  In  the  way  I  saw  the  Greve,  the  Mayor's  house,  and  the  Bastile. 

'  We  then  went  to  Sans-terre,  a  brewer  '.     He  brews  with  about 
as  much  malt  as  Mr.  Thrale,  and  sells  his  beer  at  the  same  price, 

*  He  who  commanded  the  troops  at  the  execution  of  Lewis  XVI. 

though 


Aetat.  66.]  The  King's  library.  455 

though  he  pays  no  duty  for  malt,  and  little  more  than  half  as  much 
for  beer.  Beer  is  sold  retail  at  6d.  a  bottle.  He  brews  4,000  bar- 
rels a  year.  There  are  seventeen  brewers  in  Paris,  of  whom  none 
is  supposed  to  brew  more  than  he  : — reckoning  them  at  3,000  each, 
they  make  51,000  a  year. — They  make  their  malt,  for  malting  is 
here  no  trade. 

'  The  moat  of  the  Bastile  is  dry. 

'Oct.  24.  Tuesday.  We  visited  the  King's  library — I  saw  the 
Speculum  /lumana;  Salrationis,  rudely  printed,  with  ink,  sometimes 
pale,  sometimes  black ;  part  supposed  to  be  with  wooden  types, 
and  part  with  pages  cut  on  boards. — The  Bible,  supposed  to  be 
older  than  that  of  Mentz,  in  62'  :  it  has  no  date;  it  is  supposed 
to  have  been  printed  with  w^ooden  types. — I  am  in  doubt ;  the 
print  is  large  and  fair,  in  two  folios. — Another  book  was  shown 
me,  supposed  to  have  been  printed  with  wooden  types ; — I  think, 
Durandi  Sanciuarium  ^  in  58.  This  is  inferred  from  the  difference 
of  form  sometimes  seen  in  the  same  letter,  which  might  be  struck 
wdth  different  puncheons. — The  regular  similitude  of  most  letters 
proves  better  that  they  are  metal. — I  saw  nothing  but  the  Speculujn 
which  I  had  not  seen,  I  think,  before. 

'  Thence  to  the  Sorbonne. — The  library  very  large,  not  in  lat- 
tices like  the  King's.  Marhone  and  Durandi,  q.  collection  14  vol. 
Scriptores  de  rebus  Gallicis,  many  folios. — Histoire  Geuealogique  of 
France,  9  vol. — Gallia  Christiana,  the  first  edition,  4to.  the  last,  f, 
12  vol. — The  Prior  and  Librarian  dined  [with  us]  : — I  waited  on 
them  home. — Their  garden  pretty,  with  covered  walks,  but  small ; 
yet  may  hold  many  students. — The  Doctors  of  the  Sorbonne  are 
all  equal : — choose  those  who  succeed  to  vacancies. — Profit  little. 

'Oct.  25.  Wednesday.  I  went  with  the  Prior  to  St.  Cloud,  to 
see  Dr.  Hooke. — We  walked  round  the  palace,  and  had  some  talk. 
— I  dined  with  our  whole  company  at  the  Monastery. — In  the  li- 
brary, Beroald, — Cynion, — Titus,  from  Boccace. —  O ratio  Proverbialis 
to  the  Virgin,  from  Petrarch  ;  Falkland  to  Sandys  ;  Dryden's  Pref- 
ace to  the  third  vol.  of  Miscellanies  ^ 

'  1462. 

"  I  cannot  learn  of  any  book  of  this  name.  Perhaps  Johnson  saw 
Durandi  Rationale  Officioruni  Divi'norian,  which,  was  printed  in  1459, 
one  year  later  than  Johnson  mentions.  A  copy  of  this  he  had  seen 
at  Blenheim  in  1774.     W\s  Jour ticy  into  North  Wales,  Sept.  22. 

^  He  means,  I  suppose,  that  he  read  these  different  pieces  while  he 
remained  in  the  library.     Boswell. 

'  Oct.  26. 


45^  Luxembourg.  [a. d.  1775. 

'Oct.  26.  Thursday.  We  saw  the  china  at  Seve,  cut,  glazed, 
painted.  Bellevue,  a  pleasing  house,  not  great :  fine  prospect. — 
Meudon,  an  old  palace. — Alexander,  in  Porphyry  :  hollow  between 
eyes  and  nose,  thin  cheeks. — Plato  and  Aristotle. — Noble  terrace 
overlooks  the  town. — St.  Cloud. — Gallery  not  very  high,  nor  grand^ 
but  pleasing. — In  the  rooms,  Michael  Angelo,  drawn  by  himself, 
Sir  Thomas  More,  Des  Cartes,  Bochart,  Naudaeus,  Mazarine. — 
Gilded  wainscot,  so  common  that  it  is  not  minded. — Gough  and 
Keene. — Hooke  came  to  us  at  the  inn. — A  message  from  Drum- 
gold. 

'Oct.  27.  Friday.     I  staid  at  home.  —  Gough  and  Keene,  and 

Mrs.  S 's  friend  dined  with  us. — This  day  we  began  to  have 

a  fire. — The  weather  is  grown  very  cold,  and  I  fear,  has  a  bad  ef- 
fect upon  my  breath,  which  has  grown  much  more  free  and  easy  in 
this  country. 

'  Sat.  Oct.  28.  I  visited  the  Grand  Chartreux  built  by  St.  Louis. 
— It  is  built  for  forty,  but  contains  only  twenty-four,  and  will  not 
maintain  more.  The  friar  that  spoke  to  us  had  a  pretty  apart- 
ment'.—  Mr.  Baretti  says  four  rooms;  I  remember  but  three. — 
His  books  seemed  to  be  French. — His  garden  was  neat;  he  gave 
me  grapes. — We  saw  the  Place  de  Victoire,  with  the  statues  of  the 
King,  and  the  captive  nations. 

'  We  saw  the  palace  and  gardens  of  Luxembourg,  but  the  gallery 
was  shut. — We  climbed  to  the  top  stairs. — I  dined  with  Colbrooke, 
who  had  much  company  : — Foote,  Sir  George  Rodney,  Motteux, 
Udson,  Taaf. — Called  on  the  Prior,  and  found  him  in  bed. 

'  Hotel — a  guinea  a  day. — Coach,  three  guineas  a  week. — Valet 
de  place  ",  three  1.  ^  a  day. — Avantcoureur,  a  guinea  a  week. — Ordi- 
nary dinner,  six  1.  a  head. — Our  ordinary  seems  to  be  about  five 
guineas  a  day. — Our  extraordinary  expences,  as  diversions,  gratui- 
ties, clothes,  I  cannot  reckon. — Our  travelling  is  ten  guineas  a  day. 

'  Johnson  in  his  DictioJiary  defines  Apartvicnt  as  A  room;  a  set  of 
rooms. 

^  Smollett  {Travels,  i.  85)  writes  of  these  temporary  servants  : — '  You 
cannot  conceive  with  what  eagerness  and  dexterity  these  rascally 
valets  exert  themselves  in  pillaging  strangers.  There  is  always  one 
ready  in  waiting  on  your  arrival,  who  begins  by  assisting  your  own 
servant  to  unload  your  baggage,  and  interests  himself  in  your  own 
affairs  with  such  artful  officiousness  that  you  will  find  it  difficult  to 
shake  him  off.' 

^  Livres — francs  we  should  now  say. 

'  White 


Aetat.  6G.]  The  Foundli7ig-hospital.  457 

'White  stockings,  18  1. — Wig. — Hat. 

'  Sunday,  Oct.  29.  We  saw  the  boarding-school. — The  Etifatis 
trouves\  —  A  room  with  about  eighty -six  children  in  cradles,  as 
sweet  as  a  parlour. — They  lose  a  third  ^ ;  take  in  to  perhaps  more 
than  seven  [years  old] ;  put  them  to  trades ;  pin  to  them  the  pa- 
pers sent  with  them. — Want  nurses. — Saw  their  chapel. 

.'  Went  to  St.  Eustatia ;  saw  an  innumerable  company  of  girls 
catechised,  in  many  bodies,  perhaps  100  to  a  catechist.  —  Boys 
taught  at  one  time,  girls  at  another. — The  sermon;  the  preacher 
wears  a  cap,  which  he  takes  off  at  the  name  : — his  action  uniform, 
not  very  violent. 

'Oct.  30.  Monday.  We  saw  the  library  of  St.  Germain \  —  A 
very  noble  collection. — Codex  Divinoricm  Officiorum,  1459  : — a  let- 
ter, square  like  that  of  the  Offices,  perhaps  the  same. — The  Codex, 
by  Fust  and  Gernsheym. — Meursius,  12  v.  fol. — Atnadis,  in  French, 
3  V.  fol.  —  Catholicon  sine  colophone,  but  of  1460. — Two  other 
editions  *,  one  by  ...  . 

Augustin.  de  Civitate  Dei,  without  name,  date,  or  place,  but  of  Fust's 
square  letter  as  it  seems. 

'  I  dined  with  Col.  Drumgold  ; — had  a  pleasing  afternoon. 

'  Some  of  the  books  of  St.  Germain's  stand  in  presses  from  the 
wall,  like  those  at  Oxford. 

'Oct.  31.  Tuesday.  I  lived  at  the  Benedictines;  meagre  day; 
soup  meagre,  herrings,  eels,  both  with  sauce ;  fryed  fish ;  lentils, 

'  It  was  here  that  Rousseau  got  rid  of  his  children.  '  Je  savais  que 
I'education  pour  eux  la  moins  perllleuse  etait  celle  des  enfans  trouves ; 
et  je  les  y  mis.'     Lcs  Reveries,  zx^^* promenade. 

^  Dr.  Franklin,  in  1785,  wrote: — '  I  am  credibly  informed  that  nine- 
tenths  of  them  die  there  pretty  soon.'  Memoirs,  iii.  187.  Lord  Kames 
{Slcetches  of  the  History  of  Man,  iii.  91)  says  : — '  The  Paris  almanac  for 
the  year  1768  mentions  that  there  were  baptised  18,576  infants,  of 
whom  the  foundling-hospital  received  6025.' 

'  St.  Germain  des  Pres.  Better  known  as  the  Prison  of  the  Ab- 
bayc. 

^  I  have  looked  in  vain  into  Dc  Bure,  Meerman,  Mattaire,  and  other 
typographical  books,  for  the  two  editions  of  the  Catholicon,  which  Dr. 
Johnson  mentions  herewith  names  which  I  cannot  make  out.  I  read 
'  one  by  Latinius,  one  by  Boedinus.'  I  have  deposited  the  original  MS. 
in  the  British  Museum,  where  the  curious  may  sec  it.  My  grateful 
acknowledgements  arc  due  to  Mr.  Planta  for  the  trouble  he  was 
pleased  to  take  in  aiding  my  researches.  Boswell.  A  Mr.  Planta 
is  mentioned  in  Mme.  D'Arblay's  Diary,  v.  39. 

tasteless 


458  Chan  filly.  [a.d,  1775. 

tasteless  in  themselves.  In  the  library ;  where  I  found  Maffeus's  de 
Historia  Indica  :  Promoiitorium  ficctcre,  to  double  the  Cape.  I  parted 
very  tenderly  from  the  Prior  and  Friar  Wilkes'. 

''  Maitre  des  Arts,  2  y. — Bacc.  Thcol.  3  y. — Licentiate,  2  y. — Doctor 
Th.  2  y.  in  all  9  years. — For  the  Doctorate  three  disputations,  Ma- 
jor, Minor,  Sorbonica. — Several  colleges  suppressed,  and  transferred 
to  that  which  was  the  Jesuits'  College. 

'Nov.  I.  Wednesday.  We  left  Paris. — St.  Denis,  a  large  town; 
the  church  not  very  large,  but  the  middle  isle  is  very  lofty  and 
aweful. — On  the  left  are  chapels  built  beyond  the  line  of  the  wall, 
which  destroy  the  symmetry  of  the  sides.  The  organ  is  higher 
above  the  pavement  than  any  I  have  ever  seen. — The  gates  are  of 
brass. — On  the  middle  gate  is  the  history  of  our  Lord. — The  paint- 
ed windows  are  historical,  and  said  to  be  eminently  beautiful. — We 
were  at  another  church  belonging  to  a  convent,  of  which  the  portal 
is  a  dome ;  we  could  not  enter  further,  and  it  was  almost  dark, 

'Nov.  2.  Thursday.  We  came  this  day  to  Chantilly,  a  seat  be- 
longing to  the  Prince  of  Conde. — This  place  is  eminently  beautified 
by  all  varieties  of  waters  starting  up  in  fountains,  falling  in  cas- 
cades, running  in  streams,  and  spread  in  lakes. — The  water  seems 
to  be  too  near  the  house. — All  this  water  is  brought  from  a  source 
or  river  three  leagues  off,  by  an  artificial  canal,  which  for  one  league 
is  carried  under  ground. — The  house  is  magnificent. — The  cabinet 
seems  well  stocked  :  what  I  remember  was,  the  jaws  of  a  hip- 
popotamus, and  a  young  hippopotamus  preserved,  which,  how- 
ever, is  so  small,  that  I  doubt  its  reality. — It  seems  too  hairy  for 
an  abortion,  and  too  small  for  a  mature  birth. — Nothing  was  in 
spirits ;  all  was  dry. — The  dog,  the  deer ;  the  ant-bear  with  long 
snout.  —  The  toucan,  long  broad  beak.  —  The  stables  were  of 
very  great  length.  —  The  kennel  had  no  scents. — There  was  a 
mockery  of  a  village. — The  Menagerie  had  few  animals  ^. — Two 


'  Friar  Wilkes  visited  Johnson  in  May,  1776.  Piozzi  Letters,  i.  336. 
On  Sept.  18,  1777,  Mrs.  Thrale  wrote  to  Johnson  : — '  I  have  got  some 
news  that  will  please  you  now.  Here  is  an  agreeable  friend  come 
from  Paris,  whom  you  were  very  fond  of  when  we  were  there — the 
Prior  of  our  English  Benedictine  Convent,  Mr.  Cowley.  .  .  .  He  in- 
quires much  for  you ;  and  says  Wilkes  is  very  well,  No.  45,  as  they 
call  him  in  the  Convent.  A  cell  is  always  kept  ready  for  your  use  he 
tells  me.'    lb.  p.  373. 

^  The  writing  is  so  bad  here,  that  the  names  of  several  of  the  ani- 
mals could  not  be  decyphered  without  much  more  acquaintance  with 

faussans, 


Aetat.  GG.]  Cotnpiegne.  459 

faussans  \  or  Brasilian  weasels,  spotted,  very  wild. — There  is  a 
forest,  and,  I  think,  a  park. — I  walked  till  I  was  very  weary,  and 
next  morning  felt  my  feet  battered,  and  with  pains  in  the  toes. 

'  Nov.  3.  Friday.  We  came  to  Compiegne,  a  very  large  town, 
with  a  royal  palace  built  round  a  pentagonal  court. — The  court  is 
raised  upon  vaults,  and  has,  I  suppose,  an  entry  on  one  side  by  a 
gentle  rise. — Talk  of  painting  ^ — The  church  is  not  very  large,  iDut 
very  elegant  and  splendid. — I  had  at  first  great  difficulty  to  walk, 
but  motion  grew  continually  easier. — At  night  we  came  to  Noyon, 
an  episcopal  city. — The  cathedral  is  very  beautiful,  the  pillars  alter- 
nately gothick  and  Corinthian. — We  entered  a  very  noble  parochial 
church. — Noyon  is  walled,  and  is  said  to  be  three  miles  round. 

'  Nov.  4.  Saturday.  We  rose  very  early,  and  came  through  St. 
Quintin  to  Cambray,  not  long  after  three. — We  went  to  an  English 
nunnery,  to  give  a  letter  to  Father  Welch,  the  confessor,  who  came 
to  visit  us  in  the  evening. 

'Nov.  5.  Sunday.  We  saw  the  cathedral. — It  is  very  beautiful, 
with  chapels  on  each  side. — The  choir  splendid. — The  balustrade 
in  one  part  brass. — The  Neff  ^  very  high  and  grand. — The  altar 

silver  as  far  as  it  is  seen. — The  vestments  very  splendid. At 

the  Benedictines  church ' 

natural  histor)'  than  I  possess. — Dr.  Blagden,  with  his  usual  polite- 
ness, most  obligingly  examined  the  MS.  To  that  gentleman,  and  to 
Dr.  Gray,  of  the  British  Museum,  who  also  very  readily  assisted  me, 
I  beg  leave  to  express  my  best  thanks.  Boswell.  For  Dr.  Blagden 
seepos^,  17S0,  in  Mr.  Langton's  Collection. 

'  It  is  thus  written  by  Johnson,  from  the  French  pronunciation  of 
fossane.  It  should  be  observed,  that  the  person  who  shewed  this 
Menagerie  was  mistaken  in  supposing  Xh^  fossane  and  the  Brasilian 
weasel  to  be  the  same,.  Xho.  fossane  being  a  different  animal,  and  a  na- 
tive of  Madagascar.  I  find  them,  however,  upon  one  plate  in  Pen- 
nant's Synopsis  of  Quadrupeds.     BosWELL. 

^  How  little  Johnson  relished  this  talk  is  shewn  by  his  letter  to 
Mrs.  Thrale  of  May  i,  1780,  and  by  her  answer.  He  wrote: — 'The 
Exhibition,  how  will  you  do,  either  to  see  or  not  to  see  }  The  Exhibi- 
tion is  eminently  splendid.  There  is  contour,  and  keeping,  and  grace, 
and  expression,  and  all  the  varieties  of  artificial  excellence.'  Piozzi 
Letters,  ii.  in.  She  answered  : — '  When  did  I  ever  plague  you  about 
contour,  and  grace,  and  expression  ?  I  have  dreaded  them  all  three 
since  that  hapless  day  at  Compiegne  when  you  teased  me  so.'  lb.  p.  1 16. 

'  ' Nef  (old  French  from  nave),  the  body  of  a  church.'  Johnson's 
Dictionary. 

Here 


460      Johnsons  account  of  his  French  tour.   [a.d.  1775. 

Here  his  Journal'  ends  abruptly.  Whether  he  wrote  any 
more  after  this  time,  I  know  not ;  but  probably  not  much,  as 
he  arrived  in  England  about  the  12th  of  November.  These 
short  notes  of  his  tour,  though  they  may  seem  minute  taken 
singly,  make  together  a  considerable  mass  of  information, 
and  exhibit  such  an  ardour  of  enquiry  and  acuteness  of  ex- 
amination, as,  I  believe,  are  found  in  but  few  travellers,  es- 
pecially at  an  advanced  age.  They  completely  refute  the 
idle  notion  which  has  been  propagated,  that  lie  could  not 
see^ ;  and,  if  he  had  taken  the  trouble  to  revise  and  digest 
them,  he  undoubtedly  could  have  expanded  them  into  a 
very  entertaining  narrative. 

When  I  met  him  in  London  the  following  year,  the  ac- 
count which  he  gave  me  of  his  French  tour,  was, '  Sir,  I  have 
seen  all  the  visibilities  of  Paris,  and  around  it ;  but  to  have 
formed  an  acquaintance  with  the  people  there,  would  have 
required  more  time  than  I  could  stay.  I  was  just  beginning 
to  creep  into  acquaintance' by  means  of  Colonel  Drumgold, 
a  very  high  man.  Sir,  head  of  LEcole  Militaire,  a  most  com- 
plete character,  for  he  had  first  been  a  professor  of  rhetorick, 
and  then  became  a  soldier.      And,  Sir,  I  was  very  kindly 


'  My  worthy  and  ingenious  friend,  Mr.  Andrew  Lumisden,  by  his 
accurate  acquaintance  with  France,  enabled  me  to  make  out  many 
proper  names,  which  Dr.  Johnson  had  written  indistinctly,  and  some- 
times spelt  erroneously.  Boswell.  Lumisden  is  mentioned  in  ^os- 
\Ye\Vs  Hebrides,  Sept.  13. 

^  Baretti,  in  a  marginal  note  on  Piozzi  Letters,  i.  142,  says  that  'John- 
son saw  next  to  nothing  of  Paris.'  On  p.  159  he  adds  : — '  He  noticed 
the  country  so  little  that  he  scarcely  spoke  of  it  ever  after.'  He  shews, 
however,  his  ignorance  of  Johnson's  doings  by  saying  that '  in  France 
he  never  touched  a  pen.' 

^  Hume's  reception  in  1763  was  very  different.  He  wrote  to  Adam 
Smith  : — '  I  have  been  three  days  at  Paris,  and  two  at  Fontainebleau, 
and  have  everywhere  met  with  the  most  extraordinary  honours  which 
the  most  exorbitant  vanity  could  wish  or  desire.'  The  Dauphin's 
three  children,  afterwards  Lewis  XVI,  Lewis  XVIH,  and  Charles  X, 
had  each  to  make  to  him  a  set  speech  of  congratulation.  He  was  the 
favourite  of  the  most  exclusive  coteries.  J.  H.  Burton's  Hume,  ii.  168, 
177,  208.     But  at  that  date,  sceptical  philosophy  was  the  rage. 

treated 


Aetat.  66.]     A^o  happy  middle  state  in  France.  461 

treated  by  the  English  Benedictines,  and  have  a  cell  appro- 
priated to  me  in  their  convent.' 

He  observed, '  The  great  in  France  live  very  magnificent- 
ly, but  the  rest  very  miserably.  There  is  no  happy  middle 
state  as  in  England'.  The  shops  of  Paris  are  mean;  the 
meat  in  the  markets  is  such  as  would  be  sent  to  a  gaol  in 
England" :  and  Mr.  Thrale  justly  observed,  that  the  cookery 

'  Horace  Walpole  wrote  from  Paris  in  1771  {Lcitcrs,  v.  '^ij-ig) : — 
'  The  distress  here  is  incredible,  especially  at  Court.  .  . .  The  middling 
and  common  people  are  not  much  richer  than  Job  when  he  had  lost 
everj^'thing  but  his  patience.'  Rousseau  wrote  of  the  French  in  1777  : 
— '  Cette  nation  qui  se  pretend  si  gaie  montre  peu  cette  gaite  dans 
ses  jeux.  Souvent  j'allais  jadis  aux  guinguettes  pour  y  voir  danser 
le  menu  peuple ;  mais  ses  danses  etaient  si  maussades,  son  maintien 
si  dolent,  si  gauche,  que  j'en  sortais  plutot  contriste  que  rejoui.'  Les 
Reveries,  IXine.  promenade.  Baretti  {Joitrney  to  Genoa,  iv.  146)  denies 
that  the  French  '  are  entitled  to  the  appellation  of  cheerful.'  '  Prov- 
ence,' he  says  {ib.  148),  '  is  the  only  province  in  which  you  see  with 
some  sort  of  frequency  the  rustic  assemblies  roused  up  to  cheerfulness 
by  t\iQ  Jif re  and  the  iambonrm.'  Mrs.  Piozzi  describes  the  absence  of 
'the  happy  middle  state '  abroad.  'As  soon  as  Dover  is  left  behind, 
every  man  seems  to  belong  to  some  other  man,  and  no  man  to  him- 
self.' Vxozzx'i  Joitrney,  ii.  341.  Voltaire,  in  his  review  oi  Julia  Mande- 
ville  (  Works,  xliii.  364),  says  : — '  Pour  peu  qu'un  roman,  une  tragedie, 
une  comedie  ait  de  succes  a  Londres,  on  en  fait  trois  et  quatre  edi- 
tions en  peu  de  mois ;  c'est  que  I'etat  mitoyen  est  plus  riche  et  plus 
instruit  en  Angleterre  qu'en  France,  &c.'  But  Barry,  the  painter  {post, 
May  17,  1783),  in  1766,  described  to  Burke,  'the  crowds  of  busy  con- 
tented people  which  cover  (as  one  may  say)  the  whole  face  of  the 
country.'     But  he  was  an  Irishman  comparing  France  with  Ireland. 

'  They  make  a  strong,  but  melancholy  contrast  to  a  miserable 

which  I  cannot  help  thinking  of  sometimes.  You  will  not  be  at  any 
loss  to  know  that  I  mean  Ireland.'  Barry's  Works,  i.  57.  '  Hume,' 
says  Dr.  J.  H.  Burton, '  in  his  Essay  o?i  The  Parties  oj  Great  Britain 
Cpublished  in  1741),  alludes  to  the  absence  of  a  middle  class  in  Scot- 
land, where  he  says,  there  are  only  "  two  ranks  of  men,  gentlemen  who 
have  some  fortune  and  education,  and  the  meanest  starving  poor; 
without  any  considerable  number  of  the  middling  rank  of  men,  which 
abounds  more  in  England,  both  in  cities  and  in  the  country,  than  in 
any  other  quarter  of  the  world."  '  Life  of  Hume,  i.  198.  I  do  not  find 
this  passage  in  the  edition  of  Hume's  Essays  of  i770- 

"  Yet  Smollett  wrote  in  1763  : — '  All  manner  of  butcher's  meat  and 

of 


462  The  French  an  indelicate  people.      [a.d.  1775. 

of  the  French  was  forced  upon  them  by  necessity ;  for  they 
could  not  eat  their  meat,  unless  they  added  some  taste  to 
it.     The  French   are   an   indelicate   people ;   they  will   spit 

upon  any  place'.     At  Madame 's\  a  literary  lady  of 

rank,  the  footman  took  the  sugar  in  his  fingers',  and  threw 
it  into  my  coffee.  I  was  going  to  put  it  aside ;  but  hearing 
it  was  made  on  purpose  for  mc,  I  e'en  tasted  Tom's  fingers. 
The  same  lady  would  needs  make  tea  a  V Angloise.  The 
spout  of  the  tea-pot  did  not  pour  freely ;  she  bad  the  foot- 
man blow  into  it\  France  is  worse  than  Scotland  in  every 
thing  but  climate.  Nature  has  done  more  for  the  French ; 
but  they  have  done  less  for  themselves  than  the  Scotch 
have  done.' 

It  happened  that  Foote  was  at  Paris  at  the  same  time 
with  Dr.  Johnson,  and  his  description  of  my  friend  while 
there,  was  abundantly  ludicrous.  He  told  me,  that  the 
French  were  quite  astonished  at  his  figure  and  manner,  and 

poultry  are  extremely  good  in  Paris.  The  beef  is  excellent.*  He 
adds, '  I  can  by  no  means  relish  their  cookery.'  Smollett's  Travels,  i. 
86.  Horace  Walpole,  in  1765,  wrote  from  Amiens  on  his  way  to  Paris: 
— '  I  am  almost  famished  for  want  of  clean  victuals,  and  comfortable 
tea,  and  bread  and  butter.'  Letters,  iv.  401.  Goldsmith,  in  1770,  wrote 
from  Paris :  —  'As  for  the  meat  of  this  country  I  can  scarce  eat  it, 
and  though  we  pay  two  good  shillings  an  head  for  our  dinner,  I  find  it 
all  so  tough,  that  I  have  spent  less  time  with  my  knife  than  my  pick- 
tooth.'     Forster's  Goldsmith,  ii.  219. 

'  Walpole  calls  Paris  '  the  ugliest,  beastliest  town  in  the  universe,' 
and  describes  the  indelicacy  of  the  talk  of  women  of  the  first  rank. 
Letters,  iv.  435.     See  post.  May  13,  1778,  and  under  Aug.  29,  1783. 

^  Madame  du  Boccage,  according  to  Miss  Reynolds,  whose  author- 
ity was  Baretti.     Croker's  Boswell,  p.  467.     S&t  post,  June  25, 1784. 

^  In  Edinburgh,  Johnson  threw  a  glass  of  lemonade  out  of  the  win- 
dow because  the  waiter  had  put  the  sugar  into  it '  with  his  greasy  fin- 
gers.'    Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  14. 

^  Mrs.  Thrale  wrote  to  Johnson  in  1782  : — '  When  we  were  in  France 
we  could  form  little  judgement  [of  the  spread  of  refinement],  as  our 
time  was  passed  chiefly  among  English  ;  yet  I  recollect  that  one  fine 
lady,  who  entertained  us  very  splendidly,  put  her  mouth  to  the  tea- 
pot, and  blew  in  the  spout  when  it  did  not  pour  freely.'  Piozzi  Let- 
ters, ii.  247. 

at 


Aetat.  6tj.]       Johnsons  talk  with  foreigners.  463 

at  his  dress,  which  he  obstinately  continued  exactly  as  in 
London';  —  his  brown  clothes,  black  stockings,  and  plain 
shirt.  He  mentioned,  that  an  Irish  gentleman  said  to  John- 
son, '  Sir,  you  have  not  seen  the  best  French  players.'  JOHN- 
SON. '  Players,  Sir !  I  look  on  them  as  no  better  than  creat- 
ures set  upon  tables  and  joint -stools  to  make  faces  and 
produce  laughter,  like  dancing  dogs.'  — '  But,  Sir,  you  will 
allow  that  some  players  are  better  than  others?'  JOHNSON. 
'  Yes,  Sir,  as  some  dogs  dance  better  than  others.' 

While  Johnson  was  in  France,  he  was  generally  very  reso- 
lute in  speaking  Latin.  It  was  a  maxim  with  him  that  a 
man  should  not  let  himself  down,  by  speaking  a  language 
which  he  speaks  imperfectly.  Indeed,  we  must  have  often 
observed  how  inferiour,  how  much  like  a  child  a  man 
appears,  who  speaks  a  broken  tongue.  When  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds,  at  one  of  the  dinners  of  the  Royal  Academy,  pre- 
sented him  to  a  Frenchman  of  great  distinction,  he  would 
not  deign  to  speak  French,  but  talked  Latin,  though  his 
Excellency  did  not  understand  it,  owing,  perhaps,  to  John- 
son's  English   pronunciation'^:  yet  upon  another  occasion 

'  That  he  did  not  continue  exactly  as  in  London  is  stated  by  Bos- 
well  himself.  '  He  was  furnished  with  a  Paris-made  wig  of  handsome 
construction.'  See  post,  April  28,  1778.  His  Journal  shews  that  he 
bought  articles  of  dress  {a?ite,  ii.  456).  Hawkins  {Life,  p.  517)  says  that 
'  he  yielded  to  the  remonstrances  of  his  friends  so  far  as  to  dress  in  a 
suit  of  black  and  a  Bourgeois  wig,  but  resisted  their  importunity  to 
wear  ruffles.  By  a  note  in  his  diary  it  appears  that  he  laid  out  near 
thirty  pounds  in  clothes  for  this  journey.'  A  story  told  by  Foote  we 
may  believe  as  little  as  we  please.  '  Foote  is  quite  impartial,'  said 
Johnson, 'for  he  tells  lies  of  everybody.'  See  /^j/,  under  March  15, 
1776. 

"  If  Johnson's  Latin  was  understood  by  foreigners  in  France,  but 
not  in  England,  the  explanation  may  be  found  in  his  Lzfe  of  Milton 
(  Works,  vii.  99),  where  he  says  : — '  He  who  travels,  if  he  speaks  Latin, 
may  so  soon  learn  the  sounds  which  every  native  gives  it,  that  he 
need  make  no  provision  before  his  journey  ;  and  if  strangers  visit  us,  it 
is  their  business  to  practise  such  conformity  to  our  modes  as  they  ex- 
pect from  us  in  their  own  countries.'  Johnson  was  so  sturdy  an  Eng- 
lishman that  likely  enough,  as  he  was  in  London,  he  would  not  alter 
his  pronunciation  to  suit  his  Excellency's  ear.     In  Priestley's  Works, 

he 


464  Madame  de  Boufflers,  [a.d.  1775. 

he  was  observed  to  speak  French  to  a  Frenchman  of  high 
rank,  who  spoke  EngHsh ;  and  being  asked  the  reason,  with 
some  expression  of  surprise, — he  answered, '  because  I  think 
my  French  is  as  good  as  his  EngHsh.'  Though  Johnson 
understood  French  perfectly,  he  could  not  speak  it  readily, 
as  I  have  observed  at  his  first  interview  with  General  Paoli, 
in  1769' ;  yet  he  wrote  it,  I  imagine,  pretty  well,  as  appears 
from  some  of  his  letters  in  Mrs.  Piozzi's  collection,  of  which 
I  shall  transcribe  one  : — 

A  Madame  La  Comtesse  de '. 

'July  16,  1775'. 
'  Oui,  Madame,  le  moment  est  arrive,  et  il  faut  que  je parte.  Mais 
poiirquoi  faut  il  partir?  Est  ce  que  Je  m'enniiye?  Je  tn' efinuyerai 
ailleurs.  Est  ce  que  je  cherche  ou  quelque  plaisir,  ou  quelque  soulage- 
ment?  jfe  ne  cherche  rien,je  fi'espere  rien.  Alter  voir  ce  que  jai  vti, 
etre  un  pen  rejoue,  un  pen  degoute,  me  resouvenir  que  la  vie  se  passe 
e?i  vain,  fne  plaindre  de  moi,  m^endiircir  anx  dehors  ;  voici  le  tout  de 
ce  qti'on  co7npte  pour  Ics  delices  de  Pannee.  Que  Dieu  vous  domie, 
Madame,  tons  les  agremens  de  la  vie,  avec  un  esprit  qui  peut  en  jouir 
sans  s'y  livrer  trop.' 

Here  let  me  not  forget  a  curious  anecdote,  as  related  to 
me  by  Mr.  Beauclerk,  which  I  shall  endeavour  to  exhibit  as 
well  as  I  can  in  that  gentleman's  lively  manner ;  and  in  jus- 
tice to  him  it  is  proper  to  add,  that  Dr.  Johnson  told  me  I 
might  rely  both  on  the  correctness  of  his  memory,  and  the 

xxiii.  233,  a  conversation  is  reported  in  which  Dr.  Johnson  argued  for 
the  ItaHan  method  of  pronouncing  Latin.  '  See  ante,  ii.  92. 

*  As  Mme.  de  Boufflers  is  mentioned  in  the  next  paragraph,  Bos- 
well,  no  doubt,  wishes  to  shew  that  the  letter  was  addressed  to  her. 
She  was  the  mistress  of  the  Prince  of  Conti.  She  understood  English, 
and  was  the  correspondent  of  Hume.  There  was  also  a  Marquise  de 
Boufflers,  mistress  of  old  King  Stanislaus. 

'  In  the  Piozzi  Letters  (i.  34),  this  letter  is  dated  May  16,  1771  ;  in 
Boswell's  first  and  second  editions,  July  16,  1771 ;  in  the  third  edition, 
July  16,  1775.  In  May,  1771,  Johnson,  so  far  as  there  is  any  thing  to 
shew,  was  in  London.  On  July  16,  both  in  1771  and  1775,  he  was  in 
Ashbourne.  One  of  Hume's  Letters  {Private  Carres,  p.  283),  dated 
April  17,  1775,  shews  that  Mme.  de  Boufflers  was  at  that  time  'speak- 
ing of  coming  to  England.' 

fidelity 


Aetat.  66.]        Johnsons  Latin  conversation.  465 

fidelity  of  his  narrative.  '  When  Madame  de  Boufflers  was 
first  in  England',  (said  Beauclerk,)  she  was  desirous  to  see 
Johnson.  I  accordingly  went  with  her  to  his  chambers  in 
the  Temple,  where  she  was  entertained  with  his  conversa- 
tion for  some  time.  When  our  visit  was  over,  she  and  I  left 
him,  and  were  got  into  Inner  Temple-lane,  when  all  at  once 
I  heard  a  noise  like  thunder.  This  was  occasioned  by  John- 
son, who  it  seems,  upon  a  little  recollection,  had  taken  it 
into  his  head  that  he  ought  to  have  done  the  honours  of 
his  literary  residence  to  a  foreign  lady  of  quality,  and  eager 
to  shew  himself  a  man  of  gallantry,  was  hurrying  down  the 
stair-case  in  violent  agitation.  He  overtook  us  before  we 
reached  the  Temple-gate,  and  brushing  in  between  me  and 
Madame  de  Boufflers,  seized  her  hand,  and  conducted  her 
to  her  coach.  His  dress  was  a  rusty  brown  morning  suit,  a 
pair  of  old  shoes  by  way  of  slippers,  a  little  shrivelled  wig 
sticking  on  the  top  of  his  head,  and  the  sleeves  of  his  shirt 
and  the  knees  of  his  breeches  hanging  loose.  A  considera- 
ble crowd  of  people  gathered  round,  and  were  not  a  little 
struck  by  this  singular  appearance.' 

He  spoke  Latin  with  wonderful  fluency  and  elegance. 
When  Pere  Boscovich''  was  in  England,  Johnson  dined  in 
company  with  him  at  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds's,  and  at  Dr. 
Douglas's,  now  Bishop  of  Salisbury.  Upon  both  occasions 
that  celebrated  foreigner  expressed  his  astonishment  at  John- 
son's Latin  conversation.  When  at  Paris,  Johnson  thus 
characterised  Voltaire  to  Freron  the  Journalist:  '  Vir  est 
accrrinii  ingcnii  ct  paiicariun  litcrarum' 

'To  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson. 

'  Edinburgh,  Dec.  5,  1775. 
'  My  dear  Sir, 

'  Mr.  Alexander  Maclean,  the  young  Laird  of  Col,  being  to  set 

'  Mme.  de  Boufflers  was  in  England  in  the  summer  of  1763.  Jesse's 
Selivyn,  i.  235. 

*  Boscovich,  a  learned  Jesuit,  was  born  at  Ragusa  in  1711,  and  died 
in  1787.  He  visited  London  in  1760,  and  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the 
Royal  Society.     Chalmers's  Bzog.  Diet.     See  ante,  ii.  144. 

H.— 30  out 


466  Johnsons  sayings.  [a.d.  1775. 

out  to-morrow  for  London,  I  give  him  this  letter  to  introduce  him 
to  your  acquaintance.  The  kindness  which  you  and  I  experienced 
from  his  brother,  whose  unfortunate  death  we  sincerely  lament", 
will  make  us  always  desirous  to  shew  attention  to  any  branch  of 
the  family.  Indeed,  you  have  so  much  of  the  true  Highland  cord- 
iality, that  I  am  sure  you  would  have  thought  me  to  blame  if  I 
had  neglected  to  recommend  to  you  this  Hebridean  prince,  in 
whose  island  we  were  hospitably  entertained. 

'  I  ever  am  with  respectful  attachment,  my  dear  Sir, 

'  Your  most  obliged 
'  And  most  humble  servant, 

'James  Boswell.' 

Mr.  Maclean  returned  with  the  most  agreeable  accounts 
of  the  polite  attention  with  which  he  was  received  by  Dr. 
Johnson. 

In  the  course  of  this  year  Dr.  Barney  informs  me  that  Mie 
very  frequently  met  Dr.  Johnson  at  Mr.  Thrale's,  at  Streat- 
ham,  where  they  had  many  long  conversations,  often  sitting 
up  as  long  as  the  fire  and  candles  lasted,  and  much  longer 
than  the  patience  of  the  servants  subsisted  ^' 

A  few  of  Johnson's  sayings,  which  that  gentleman  recol- 
lects, shall  here  be  inserted. 

'  I  never  take  a  nap  after  dinner  but  when  I  have  had  a 
bad  night,  and  then  the  nap  takes  me.' 

'  The  waiter  of  an  epitaph  should  not  be  considered  as 
saying  nothing  but  what  is  strictly  true.  Allowance  must 
be  made  for  some  degree  of  exaggerated  praise.  In  lapi- 
dary inscriptions  a  man  is  not  upon  oath\' 

'  See  ante,  ii.  329. 

^  Four  years  later  Johnson  thus  spoke  to  Miss  Burney  of  her  father : 
— '"I  love  Burney;  my  heart  goes  out  to  meet  him."  "He  is  not 
ungrateful,  Sir,"  cried  I ;  "  for  most  heartily  does  he  love  you."  "  Does 
he.  Madam  ?  I  am  surprised  at  that."  "  Why,  Sir?  Why  should  you 
have  doubted  it .''"  "  Because,  Madam,  Dr.  Burney  is  a  man  for  all  the 
world  to  love:  it  is  but  natural  to  love  him."  I  could  have  almost 
cried  with  delight  at  this  cordial,  unlaboured  dlogc'  Mme.  D'Arblay's 
Diary,  i.  196. 

*  'Though  a  sepulchral  inscription  is  professedly  a  panegyrick,  and 
therefore  not  confined  to  historical  impartiality,  yet  it  ought  always 

*  There 


Aetat.  66.]  By-roacis  m  education.  467 

'  There  is  now  less  flogging  in  our  great  schools  than  for- 
merly, but  then  less  is  learned  there ;  so  that  what  the 
boys  get  at  one  end  they  lose  at  the  other'.' 

'  More  is  learned  in  publick  than  in  private  schools  °,  from 
emulation  ;  there  is  the  collision  of  mind  with  mind,  or  the 
radiation  of  many  minds  pointing  to  one  centre.  Though 
few  boys  make  their  own  exercises,  yet  if  a  good  exercise 
is  given  up,  out  of  a  great  number  of  boys,  it  is  made  by 
somebody.' 

'  I  hate  by  -  roads  in  education.  Education  is  as  well 
known,  and  has  long  been  as  well  known,  as  ever  it  can 
be\  Endeavouring  to  make  children  prematurely  wise  is 
useless  labour.  Suppose  they  have  more  knowledge  at  five 
or  six  years  old  than  other  children,  w^hat  use  can  be  made 

to  be  written  with  regard  to  truth.  No  man  ought  to  be  commended 
for  virtues  which  he  never  possessed,  but  whoever  is  curious  to  know 
his  faults  must  inquire  after  them  in  other  places.'  Johnson's  Works, 
V.  265.     Set  post,  April  24,  1779. 

■  See  a7ttc,  i.  54. 

"^  See  />fls/,  iii.  13,  and  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  22. 

^  Johnson's  Dick  Wormwood,  in  The  Idler,  No.  83,  a  man  '  whose 
sole  delight  is  to  find  everything  wrong,  triumphs  when  he  talks  on 
the  present  system  of  education,  and  tells  us  with  great  vehemence 
that  we  are  learning  words  when  we  should  learn  things.'  In  the  Life 
of  Milton  ( Works,  vii.  75),  Johnson  writes  : — '  It  is  told  that  in  the  art 
of  education  Milton  performed  wonders ;  and  a  formidable  list  is  given 
of  the  authors,  Greek  and  Latin,  that  were  read  in  Aldersgate-street, 
by  youth  between  ten  and  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  of  age.  Those  who 
tell  or  receive  these  stories  should  consider,  that  nobody  can  be  taught 
faster  than  he  can  learn.  The  speed  of  the  horseman  must  be  limited 
by  the  power  of  the  horse.'  He  advised  Boswell  '  not  to  refine  in  the 
education  of  his  children.  You  must  do  as  other  people  do.'  See 
post,  iii.  192.  Yet,  in  his  Life  of  Barretier  ( Works,  vi.  380),  he  says  : — 
'The  first  languages  which  he  learnt  were  the  French,  German,  and 
Latin,  which  he  was  taught,  not  in  the  common  way,  by  a  multitude 
of  definitions,  rules,  and  exceptions,  which  fatigue  the  attention  and 
burden  the  memory,  without  any  use  proportionate  to  the  time  which 
they  require  and  the  disgust  which  they  create.  The  method  by  which 
he  was  instructed  was  easy  and  expeditious,  and  therefore  pleasing. 
He  learnt  them  all  in  the  same  manner,  and  almost  at  the  same  time, 
by  conversing  in  them  indifferently  with  his  father.' 

of 


4^8  Mrs.  Barbauld.  [a.d.  1775. 


of  it?  It  will  be  lost  before  it  is  wanted,  and  the  waste 
of  so  much  time  and  labour  of  the  teacher  can  never  be 
repaid.  Too  much  is  expected  from  precocity,  and  too  lit- 
tle performed.  Miss  '  was  an  instance  of  early  culti- 
vation, but  in  what  did  it  terminate?  In  marrying  a  little 
Presbyterian  parson,  who  keeps  an  infant  boarding-school, 
so  that  all  her  employment  now  is, 

"To  suckle  fools,  and  chronicle  small-beer ^" 

She  tells  the  children,  "  This  is  a  cat,  and  that  is  a  dog,  with 
four  legs  and  a  tail ;  see  there !  you  are  much  better  than 
a  cat  or  a  dog,  for  you  can  speak'."     If  I  had  bestowed 

'  Miss  Aikin,  better  known  as  Mrs.  Barbauld.  Johnson  uses  Prcs- 
bytcrmn  where  we  should  use  Unitarian.  '  The  Unitarians  of  the 
present  day  [1843]  ^re  the  representatives  of  that  branch  of  the  early 
Nonconformists  who  received  the  denomination  of  Presbyterians;  and 
they  are  still  known  by  that  name.'    Penny  Cyclo.  xxvi.  6. 

-  Othello,  act  ii.  sc.  i. 

'  He  quotes  Barbauld's  Lessons  for  Children  (p.  68,  ed.  of  1878). 
Mrs.  Piozzi  {Anec.  p.  16),  speaking  of  books  for  children,  says  : — '  Mrs. 
Barbauld  had  his  best  praise ;  no  man  was  more  struck  than  Mr.  John- 
son with  voluntary  descent  from  possible  splendour  to  painful  duty.' 
Mrs.  Piozzi  alludes  to  Johnson's  praise  of  Dr.  Watts : — '  Every  man 
acquainted  with  the  common  principles  of  human  action,  will  look 
with  veneration  on  the  writer,  who  is  at  one  time  combating  Locke, 
and  at  another  making  a  catechism  for  children  in  their  fourth  year. 
A  voluntary  descent  from  the  dignity  of  science  is  perhaps  the  hardest 
lesson  that  humility  can  teach.'  IVorks,  viii.  384.  He  praised  Milton 
also,  who,  when '  writing /'rt:r<:?(//j^ Z(?^/,  could  condescend  from  his  ele- 
vation to  rescue  children  from  the  perplexity  of  grammatical  confu- 
sion, and  the  trouble  of  lessons  unnecessarily  repeated.'  lb.  vii.  99. 
Mrs.  Barbauld  did  what  Swift  said  Gay  had  shown  could  be  done. 
'  One  may  write  things  to  a  child  without  being  childish.'  Swift's 
Works,  xvii.  221.  In  her  Advertisement,  she  says  : — '  The  task  is  hum- 
ble, but  not  mean ;  to  plant  the  first  idea  in  a  human  mind  can  be  no 
dishonour  to  any  hand.'  '  Ethicks,  or  morality,'  wrote  Johnson, '  is  one 
of  the  studies  which  ought  to  begin  with  the  first  glimpse  of  reason, 
and  only  end  with  life  itself.'  Works.,  v.  243.  This  might  have  been 
the  motto  of  her  book.  As  the  Advertisement  was  not  published  till 
1778  (Barbauld's  Works,  ii.  19)  it  is  possible  that  Johnson's  criticism 
had  reached  her,  and  that  it  was  meant  as  an  answer.     Among  her 

such 


Aetat.  66.]  Mustek.  469 

such  an  education  on  a  daughter,  and  had  discovered  that 
she  thought  of  marrying  such  a  fellow,  I  would  have  sent 
her  to  the  Congress.'' 

'  After  having  talked  slightingly  of  musick,  he  was  ob- 
served to  listen  very  attentively  while  Miss  Thrale  played 
on  the  harpsichord,  and  with  eagerness  he  called  to  her, 
"  Why  don't  you  dash  away  like  Burney  ?"  Dr.  Burney 
upon  this  said  to  him,  "  I  believe.  Sir,  we  shall  make  a 
musician  of  you  at  last."  Johnson  with  candid  compla- 
cency replied,  "  Sir,  I  shall  be  glad  to  have  a  new  sense 
fjiven  to  me'."  ' 

pupils  were  William  Taylor  of  Norwich,  Sir  William  Gell,  and  the  first 
Lord  Denman  {tb.  i.  xxv.-xxx.).  Mrs.  Barbauld  bore  Johnson  no  ill-will. 
In  her  Etghteen  Hundred  and  Eleveii,  she  describes  some  future  pil- 
grims '  from  the  Blue  Mountains  or  Ontario's  Lake.'  coming  to  view 
'  London's  faded  glories.' 

'With  throbbing  bosoms  shall  the  wanderers  tread 
The  hallowed  mansions  of  the  silent  dead, 
Shall  enter  the  long  aisle  and  vaulted  dome 
Where  genius  and  where  valour  find  a  home ; 
Bend  at  each  antique  shrine,  and  frequent  turn 
To  clasp  with  fond  delight  some  sculptured  urn. 
The  ponderous  mass  of  Johnson's  form  to  greet. 
Or  breathe  the  prayer  at  Howard's  sainted  feet.' 

lb.  \.  242. 
'  According  to  Mme.  D'Arblay  he  said  : — '  Sir,  I  shall  be  very  glad 
to  have  a  new  sense///'/  into  me.'  He  had  been  wont  to  speak  slight- 
ingly of  music  and  musicians.  '  The  first  symptom  that  he  showed  of 
a  tendency  to  conversion  was  upon  hearing  the  following  read  aloud 
from  the  preface  to  Dr.  Burney 's  History  of  Music  while  it  was  yet  in 
manuscript : — *'  The  love  of  lengthened  tones  and  modulated  sounds 
seems  a  passion  implanted  in  human  nature  throughout  the  globe ;  as 
we  hear  of  no  people,  however  wild  and  savage  in  other  particulars, 
who  have  not  music  of  some  kind  or  other,  with  which  they  seem 
greatly  delighted."  "Sir,"  cried  Dr.  Johnson  after  a  little  pause,  "this 
assertion  I  believe  may  be  right."  And  then,  see-sawing  a  minute  or 
two  on  his  chair,  he  forcibly  added  : — "  All  animated  nature  loves  mu- 
sic— except  myself !"  '  Dr.  Burtte/s  Metnoirs,  ii.  yj.  Hawkins  {Life, 
p.  319)  says  that  Johnson  said  of  music,  '"it  excites  in  my  mind  no 
ideas,  and  hinders  me  from  contemplating  my  own."  I  have  some- 
times thought  that  music  was  positive  pain  to  him.  Upon  his  hear- 
ing a  celebrated  pcrf(;rmer  go  through  a  hard  composition,  and  hear- 

'He 


470  The  wear  of  Garrick's  face.         [a.d.  1775. 

'  He  had  come  down  one  morning  to  the  breakfast-room, 
and  been  a  considerable  time  by  himself  before  any  body 
appeared.  When,  on  a  subsequent  day,  he  was  twitted  by 
Mrs.  Thrale  for  being  very  late,  which  he  generally  was,  he 
defended  himself  by  alluding  to  the  extraordinary  morning, 
when  he  had  been  too  early.  "  Madam,  I  do  not  like  to 
come  down  to  vacuity^  ' 

'  Dr.  Burney  having  remarked  that  Mr.  Garrick  was  be- 
ginning to  look  old,  he  said,  "  Why,  Sir,  you  are  not  to 
wonder  at  that ;  no  man's  face  has  had  more  wear  and 
tear'.'" 


ing  it  remarked  that  it  was  very  difficult,  he  said,  "  I  would  it  had  been 
impossible." '  Yet  he  had  once  bought  a  flageolet,  though  he  had 
never  made  out  a  tune.  '  Had  I  learnt  to  fiddle,'  he  said, '  I  should 
have  done  nothing  else'  {post,  April  7,  1778,  and  Boswell's  Hebrides, 
Oct.  15,  1773).  Not  six  months  before  his  death  he  asked  Dr.  Burney 
to  teach  him  the  scale  of  music  {ante,  ii.  302,  note  4).  That  '  he  ap- 
peared fond  of  the  bagpipe,  and  used  often  to  stand  for  some  time 
with  his  ear  close  to  the  great  drone'  (Boswell's  Hebrides,  Oct.  15), 
does  not  tell  for  much  either  way.  In  his  Hebrides  {Works,  \x.  $$), 
he  shews  his  pleasure  in  singing.  '  After  supper,'  he  writes,  '  the  la- 
dies sung  Erse  songs,  to  which  I  listened,  as  an  English  audience  to 
an  Italian  opera,  delighted  with  the  sound  of  words  which  I  did  not 
understand.'  Boswell  records  {Hebrides,  Sept.  28)  that  another  day  a 
lady  'pleased  him  much,  by  singing  Erse  songs,  and  playing  on  the 
guitar.'  Johnson  himself  shews  that  if  his  ear  was  dull  to  music,  it 
was  by  no  means  dead  to  sound.  He  thus  describes  a  journey  by 
night  in  the  Highlands  {Works,  ix.  155) :  —  'The  wind  was  loud,  the 
rain  was  heavy,  and  the  whistling  of  the  blast,  the  fall  of  the  shower, 
the  rush  of  the  cataracts,  and  the  roar  of  the  torrent,  made  a  nobler 
chorus  of  the  rough  music  of  nature  than  it  had  ever  been  my  chance 
to  hear  before.'  In  1783,  when  he  was  in  his  seventy-fourth  year,  he 
said,  on  hearing  the  music  of  a  funeral  procession  : — '  This  is  the  first 
time  that  I  have  ever  been  affected  by  musical  sounds.'  See  post, 
1780,  in  Mr.  Langton's  Collection. 

^  Miss  Burney,  in  1778,  records  that  he  said  : — '  David,  Madam,  looks 
much  older  than  he  is  ;  for  his  face  has  had  double  the  business  of  any 
other  man's ;  it  is  never  at  rest ;  when  he  speaks  one  minute,  he  has 
quite  a  different  countenance  to  what  he  assumes  the  next ;  I  don't 
believe  he  ever  kept  the  same  look  for  half-an-hour  together  in  the 
whole  course  of  his  life ;  and  such  an  eternal,  restless,  fatiguing  play 

Not 


Aetat.  66.]  BosweW s  morbid  suspicions.  471 

Not  having  heard  from  him  for  a  longer  time  than  I  sup- 
posed he  would  be  silent,  I  wrote  to  him  December  18,  not 
in  good  spirits  : — 

'  Sometimes  I  have  been  afraid  that  the  cold  which  has  gone 
over  Europe  this  year  like  a  sort  of  pestilence '  has  seized  you 
severely  :  sometimes  my  imagination,  which  is  upon  occasions  pro- 
lifick  of  evil,  hath  figured  that  you  may  have  somehow  taken 
offence  at  some  part  of  my  conduct.' 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 

'  Dear  Sir, 

'  Never  dream  of  any  offence.  How  should  you  offend  me  ? 
I  consider  your  friendship  as  a  possession,  which  I  intend  to  hold 
till  you  take  it  from  me,  and  to  lament  if  ever  by  my  fault  I  should 
lose  it.  However,  when  such  suspicions  find  their  way  into  your 
mind,  always  give  them  vent ;  I  shall  make  haste  to  disperse  them  ; 
but  hinder  their  first  ingress  if  you  can.  Consider  such  thoughts 
as  morbid. 

'  Such  illness  as  may  excuse  my  omission  to  Lord  Hailes,  I  can- 
not honestly  plead.  I  have  been  hindered,  I  know  not  how,  by  a 
succession  of  petty  obstructions.  I  hope  to  mend  immediately, 
and  to  send  next  post  to  his  Lordship.  Mr.  Thrale  would  have 
written  to  you  if  I  had  omitted ;  he  sends  his  cofnpliments  and 
wishes  to  see  you. 

'  You  and  your  lady  will  now  have  no  more  wrangling  about 
feudal  inheritance  ^.  How  does  the  young  Laird  of  Auchinleck  ? 
I  suppose  Miss  Veronica  is  grown  a  reader  and  discourser. 

'  I  have  just  now  got  a  cough,  but  it  has  never  yet  hindered  me 
from  sleeping :  I  have  had  quieter  nights  than  are  common  with  me. 

of  the  muscles  must  certainly  wear  out  a  man's  face  hefore  its  real 
time.'  Mme.  D'Arblay's  Diary,  i.  64.  Malone  fathers  this  witticism 
on  Foote.     Prior's  Malone,  p.  369. 

'  On  Nov.  2  of  this  year,  a  proposal  was  made  to  Garrick  by  the 
proprietors  of  Covent-Garden  Theatre, '  that  now  in  the  time  of  dearth 
and  sickness '  they  should  open  their  theatres  only  five  nights  in  each 
week.     Garrick  Corrcs.  ii.  108. 

*  Mrs.  Boswell  no  doubt  had  disliked  his  wish  to  pass  over  his 
daughters  in  entailing  the  Auchinleck  estate,  in  favour  of  heirs-male 
however  remote.  See/(^i-/,  ii.474.  Johnson,  on  Feb.  9,  1776,  opposing 
this  intention,  wrote  : — '  1  hope  I  shall  get  some  ground  now  with  Mrs. 
Boswell.' 

*  I  cannot 


472  Lord  Haiies  and  HenatclL  [a.d.  1776. 

'I  cannot  but  rejoice  that  Joseph'  has  had  the  wit  to  find  the 
way  back.  He  is  a  fine  fellow,  and  one  of  the  best  travellers  in 
the  world. 

'Young  Col  brought  me  your  letter.  He  is  a  very  pleasing 
youth.  I  took  him  two  days  ago  to  the  Mitre,  and  we  dined  to- 
gether.    I  was  as  civil  as  I  had  the  means  of  being. 

'  I  have  had  a  letter  from  Rasay,  acknowledging,  with  great 
appearance  of  satisfaction,  the  insertion  in  the  Edinburgh  papers 
I  am  very  glad  that  it  was  done. 

'  My  compliments  to  Mrs.  Boswell,  who  does  not  love  me  ;  and 
of  all  the  rest,  I  need  only  send  them  to  those  that  do :  and  I  am 
afraid  it  will  give  you  very  little  trouble  to  distribute  them. 
'  I  am,  my  dear,  dear  Sir, 

'  Your  affectionate  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 

'  December  23,  1775.' 

1776:  ^TAT.  67.] — In  1776,  Johnson  wrote,  so  far  as  I 
can  discover,  nothing  for  the  publick :  but  that  his  mind 
was  still  ardent,  and  fraught  with  generous  wishes  to  attain 
to  still  higher  degrees  of  literary  excellence,  is  proved  by 
his  private  notes  of  this  year,  which  I  shall  insert  in  their 
proper  place.* 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
'  Dear  Sir, 

'  I  have  at  last  sent  you  all  Lord  Hailes's  papers.  While 
I  was  in  France,  I  looked  very  often  into  Henault';  but  Lord 
Hailes,  in  my  opinion,  leaves  him  far  and  far  behind.  Why  I  did 
not  dispatch  so  short  a  perusal  sooner,  when  I  look  back,  I  am 
utterly  unable  to  discover :  but  human  moments  are  stolen  away 
by  a  thousand  petty  impediments  which  leave  no  trace  behind 
them.  I  have  been  afflicted,  through  the  whole  Christmas,  with 
the  general  disorder,  of  which  the  worst  effect  was  a  cough,  which 
is  now  much  mitigated,  though  the  country,  on  which  I  look  from 

^  Joseph  Ritter,  a  Bohemian,  who  was  in  my  service  many  years, 
and  attended  Dr.  Johnson  and  me  in  our  Tour  to  the  Hebrides.  After 
having  left  me  for  some  time,  he  had  now  returned  to  me.  Boswell. 
See  aftlc,  ii.  119. 

'  See  Boswell's  Hebrides  near  the  end. 

^  See  ante,  ii.  439. 

a  window 


Aetat.  67.]     Bosivell  and  his  father  at  variance.         473 

a  window  at  Streatham,  is  now  covered  with  a  deep  snow.     Mrs. 
Williams  is  very  ill :  every  body  else  is  as  usual. 

'  Among  the  papers,  I  found  a  letter  to  you,  which  I  think  you 
had  not  opened ;  and  a  paper  for  The  Chronich\  which  I  suppose 
it  not  necessary  now  to  insert.     I  return  them  both. 

'  I  have,  within  these  few  days,  had  the  honour  of  receiving  Lord 
Hailes's  first  volume,  for  which  I  return  my  most  respectful  thanks. 

'I  wish  you,  my  dearest  friend,  and  your  haughty  lady,  (for  I 

know  she  does  not  love  me,)  and  the  young  ladies,  and  the  young 

Laird,  all  happiness.     Teach  the  young  gentleman,  in  spite  of  his 

mamma,  to  think  and  speak  well  of, 

'  Sir,  your  affectionate  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'Jan.  10,  1776. 

At  this  time  was  in  agitation  a  matter  of  great  conse- 
quence to  me  and  my  family,  which  I  should  not  obtrude 
upon  the  world,  were  it  not  that  the  part  which  Dr.  John- 
son's friendship  for  me  made  him  take  in  it,  was  the  oc- 
casion of  an  exertion  of  his  abilities,  which  it  would  be  in- 
justice to  conceal.  That  what  he  wTote  upon  the  subject 
may  be  understood,  it  is  necessary  to  give  a  state  of  the 
question,  which  I  shall  do  as  briefly  as  I  can. 

In  the  year  1504,  the  barony  or  manour  of  Auchinleck, 
(pronounced  Affleck',)  in  Ayrshire,  which  belonged  to  a  fam- 
ily of  the  same  name  with  the  lands,  having  fallen  to  the 
Crown  by  forfeiture,  James  the  Fourth,  King  of  Scotland, 
granted  it  to  Thomas  Boswell,  a  branch  of  an  ancient  fami- 
ly in  the  county  of  Fife,  stiling  him  in  the  charter,  dilccto 
familiari  nostra ;  and  assigning,  as  the  cause  of  the  grant, 
pro  bono  ct  fidcli  servitio  nobis  prccstito.  Thomas  Boswell 
was  slain  in  battle,  fighting  along  with  his  Sovereign,  at  the 
fatal  field  of  Floddon,  in  1513'. 

'  Mr.  Croker  says  that  he  was  informed  by  Boswell's  f^rand-daugh- 
ter,  who  died  in  1836,  that  it  had  come  to  be  pronounced  Auchinleck. 
The  Rev.  James  Chrystal,  the  minister  of  Auchinleck,  in  answer  to 
my  inquiry,  politely  informs  me  that  'the  name  "Affleck  "  is  still  quite 
common  as  applied  to  the  parish,  and  even  Auchinleck  House  is  as 
often  called  Place  Affleck  as  otherwise.' 

^  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Nov.  4. 

From 


474  ^'^^  barony  of  Atichinlcck.  [a.d.  1776. 

From  this  very  honourable  founder  of  our  family,  the  es- 
tate was  transmitted,  in  a  direct  series  of  heirs  male,  to  Da- 
vid Boswell,  my  father's  great  grand  uncle,  who  had  no  sons, 
but  four  daughters,  who  were  all  respectably  married,  the 
eldest  to  Lord  Cathcart. 

David  Boswell,  being  resolute  in  the  military  feudal  princi- 
ple of  continuing  the  male  succession,  passed  by  his  daughters, 
and  settled  the  estate  on  his  nephew  by  his  next  brother, 
who  approved  of  the  deed,  and  renounced  any  pretensions 
which  he  might  possibly  have,  in  preference  to  his  son.  But 
the  estate  having  been  burthened  with  large  portions  to  the 
daughters,  and  other  debts,  it  was  necessary  for  the  nephew 
to  sell  a  considerable  part  of  it,  and  what  remained  was  still 
much  encumbered. 

The  frugality  of  the  nephew  preserved,  and,  in  some  de- 
gree, relieved  the  estate.  His  son,  my  grandfather,  an  emi- 
nent lawyer,  not  only  re-purchased  a  great  part  of  what  had 
been  sold,  but  acquired  other  lands ;  and  my  father,  who 
was  one  of  the  Judges  of  Scotland,  and  had  added  consid- 
erably to  the  estate,  now  signified  his  inclination  to  take 
the  privilege  allowed  by  our  law',  to  secure  it  to  his  family 
in  perpetuity  by  an  entail,  which,  on  account  of  his  marriage 
articles,  could  not  be  done  without  my  consent. 

In  the  plan  of  entailing  the  estate,  I  heartily  concurred 
with  him,  though  I  was  the  first  to  be  restrained  by  it ;  but 
we  unhappily  differed  as  to  the  series  of  heirs  which  should 
be  established,  or  in  the  language  of  our  law,  called  to  the 
succession.  My  father  had  declared  a  predilection  for  heirs 
general,  that  is,  males  and  females  indiscriminately.  He 
was  willing,  however,  that  all  males   descending  from  his 

*  Acts  of  Parliament  of  Scotland,  1685,  cap.  22.  Boswell.  Cock- 
burn  {Life  of  Jeffrey,  i.  372)  mentions  '  the  statute  (i  i  and  12  Victoria, 
chap,  xxxvi.)  which  dissolves  the  iron  fetters  by  which,  for  about  160 
years,  nearly  three-fourths  of  the  whole  land  in  Scotland  was  made 
permanently  unsaleable,  and  unattachable  for  debt,  and  every  acre  in 
the  kingdom  might  be  bound  up,  throughout  all  ages,  in  favour  of 
any  heirs,  or  any  conditions,  that  the  caprice  of  each  unfettered  owner 
might  be  pleased  to  prescribe.' 

grandfather 


Aetat.  67.]    BosweW s  partiality  for  hcirs  male.  475 

grandfather  should  be  preferred  to  females ;  but  would  not 
extend  that  privilege  to  males  deriving  their  descent  from  a 
higher  source.  I,  on  the  other  hand,  had  a  zealous  partiality 
for  heirs  male,  however  remote,  which  I  maintained  by  argu- 
ments which  appeared  to  me  to  have  considerable  weight". 
And  in  the  particular  case  of  our  family,  I  apprehended  that 
we  were  under  an  implied  obligation,  in  honour  and  good 
faith,  to  transmit  the  estate  by  the  same  tenure  which  we 
held  it,  which  was  as  heirs  male,  excluding  nearer  females. 

'  As  first,  the  opinion  of  some  distinguished  naturalists,  that  our 
species  is  transmitted  through  males  only,  the  female  being  all  along 
no  more  than  a  nidus,  or  nurse,  as  Mother  Earth  is  to  plants  of  every 
sort;  which  notion  seems  to  be  confirmed  by  that  text  of  scripture, 
'  He  was  yet  in  the  loins  of  his  father  when  Melchisedeck  met  him  ' 
(Heb.  vii.  lo) ;  and  consequently,  that  a  man's  grandson  by  a  daugh- 
ter, instead  of  being  his  surest  descendant  as  is  vulgarly  said,  has  in 
reality  no  connection  whatever  with  his  blood. — And  secondly,  in- 
dependent of  this  theory,  (which,  if  true,  should  completely  exclude 
heirs  general,)  that  if  the  preference  of  a  male  to  a  female,  without 
regard  to  primogeniture,  (as  a  son,  though  much  younger,  nay,  even 
a  grandson  by  a  son,  to  a  daughter,)  be  once  admitted,  as  it  univer- 
sally is,  it  must  be  equally  reasonable  and  proper  in  the  most  remote 
degree  of  descent  from  an  original  proprietor  of  an  estate,  as  in  the 
nearest ;  because, — however  distant  from  the  representative  at  the 
time, — that  remote  heir  male,  upon  the  failure  of  those  nearer  to  the 
original  proprietor  than  he  is,  becomes  in  fact  the  nearest  male  to 
him,  and  is,  therefore,  preferable  as  his  representative,  to  a  female 
descendant. — A  little  extension  of  mind  will  enable  us  easily  to  per- 
ceive that  a  son's  son,  in  continuation  to  whatever  length  of  time, 
is  preferable  to  a  son's  daughter,  in  the  succession  to  an  ancient 
inheritance ;  in  which  regard  should  be  had  to  the  representa- 
tion of  the  original  proprietor,  and  not  to  that  of  one  of  his  de- 
scendants. 

I  am  aware  of  Blackstone's  admirable  demonstration  of  the  reason- 
ableness of  the  legal  succession,  upon  the  principle  of  there  being  the 
greatest  probability  that  the  nearest  heir  of  the  person  who  last  dies 
proprietor  of  an  estate,  is  of  the  blood  of  the  first  purchaser.  But 
supposing  a  pedigree  to  be  carefully  authenticated  through  all  its 
branches,  instead  of  mere  probability  there  will  be  a  certainty  that 
the  fiearest  heir  male,  at  whatever  period,  has  the  same  right  of  blood 
with  the  first  heir  male,  namely,  the  original  purchaser  s  eldest  son. 

BOSWELL. 

I  therefore, 


476  BosweWs  dread  of  his  father.       [a.d.  1776. 

I   therefore,  as  I  thought   conscientiously,  objected  to  my 
father's  scheme. 

My  opposition  was  very  displeasing  to  my  father,  who 
was  entitled  to  great  respect  and  deference ;  and  I  had  rea- 
son to  apprehend  disagreeable  consequences  from  my  non- 
compliance with  his  wishes'.  After  much  perplexity  and 
uneasiness,  I  wrote  to  Dr.  Johnson,  stating  the  case,  with  all 
its  difficulties,  at  full  length,  and  earnestly  requesting  that 
he  would  consider  it  at  leisure,  and  favour  me  with  his 
friendly  opinion  and  advice. 

'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  I  was  much  impressed  by  your  letter,  and  if  I  can  form  upon 
your  case  any  resolution  satisfactory  to  myself,  will  very  gladly 
impart  it:  but  whether  I  am  quite  equal  to  it,  I  do  not  know. 
It  is  a  case  compounded  of  law  and  justice,  and  requires  a  mind 
versed  in  juridical  disquisitions.  Could  not  you  tell  your  whole 
mind  to  Lord  Hailes  ?  He  is,  you  know,  both  a  Christian  and  a 
Lawyer.  I  suppose  he  is  above  partiality,  and  above  loquacity : 
and,  I  believe,  he  will  not  think  the  time  lost  in  which  he  may  quiet 
a  disturbed,  or  settle  a  wavering  mind.  Write  to  me,  as  any  thing 
occurs  to  you  ;  and  if  I  find  myself  stopped  by  want  of  facts  neces- 
sary to  be  known,  I  will  make  inquiries  of  you  as  my  doubts  arise. 

'  If  your  former  resolutions  should  be  found  only  fanciful,  you 
decide  rightly  in  judging  that  your  father's  fancies  may  claim  the 
preference ;  but  whether  they  are  fanciful  or  rational,  is  the  ques- 
tion.    I  really  think  Lord  Hailes  could  help  us. 

'  Make  my  compliments  to  dear  Mrs.  Boswell ;  and  tell  her,  that 

I  hope  to  be  wanting  in  nothing  that  I  can  contribute  to  bring  you 

all  out  of  your  troubles. 

'  I  am,  dear  Sir,  most  affectionately,  your  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson,' 
'  London,  Jan.  1 5,  i  ']']6! 

^  Boswell  wrote  to  Temple  on  Sept.  2,  1775  • — '  What  a  discouraging 
reflection  is  it  that  my  father  has  in  his  possession  a  renunciation  of 
my  birthright,  which  I  madly  granted  to  him,  and  which  he  has  not 
the  generosity  to  restore  now  that  I  am  doing  beyond  his  utmost 
hopes,  and  that  he  may  incommode  and  disgrace  me  by  some  strange 
settlements,  while  all  this  time  not  a  shilling  is  secured  to  my  wife 
and  children  in  case  of  my  death  I'     Letters  of  BorujcU,  p.  216. 

To 


Aetat.67.]       Jolinson  s  first  letter  on  entails.  477 

To  THE  Same. 

'Dear  Sir, 

'  I  am  going  to  write  upon  a  question  which  requires  more 
knowledge  of  local  law,  and  more  acquaintance  with  the  general 
rules  of  inheritance,  than  I  can  claim ;  but  I  write,  because  you 
request  it. 

•  Land  is,  like  any  other  possession,  by  natural  right  wholly  in 
the  power  of  its  present  owner ;  and  may  be  sold,  given,  or  be- 
queathed, absolutely  or  conditionally,  as  judgment  shall  direct,  or 
passion  incite. 

'  But  natural  right  would  avail  little  without  the  protection  of 
law ;  and  the  primary  notion  of  law  is  restraint  in  the  exercise  of 
natural  right.  A  man  is  therefore,  in  society,  not  fully  master  of 
what  he  calls  his  own,  but  he  still  retains  all  the  power  which  law 
does  not  take  from  him. 

'  In  the  exercise  of  the  right  which  law  either  leaves  or  gives, 
regard  is  to  be  paid  to  moral  obligations. 

'  Of  the  estate  which  we  are  now  considering,  your  father  still 
retains  such  possession,  with  such  power  over  it,  that  he  can  sell  it, 
and  do  with  the  money  what  he  will,  without  any  legal  impediment. 
But  when  he  extends  his  power  beyond  his  own  life,  by  settling 
the  order  of  succession,  the  law  makes  your  consent  necessary. 

'  Let  us  suppose  that  he  sells  the  land  to  risk  the  money  in  some 
specious  adventure,  and  in  that  adventure  loses  the  whole ;  his 
posterity  would  be  disappointed ;  but  they  could  not  think  them- 
selves injured  or  robbed.  If  he  spent  it  upon  vice  or  pleasure,  his 
successors  could  only  call  him  vicious  and  voluptuous  ;  they  could 
not  say  that  he  was  injurious  or  unjust. 

'  He  that  may  do  more  may  do  less.  He  that,  by  selling,  or 
squandering,  may  disinherit  a  whole  family,  may  certainly  disinherit 
part,  b}'  a  partial  settlement. 

'  Laws  are  formed  by  the  manners  and  exigencies  of  particular 
times,  and  it  is  but  accidental  that  they  last  longer  than  their 
causes :  the  limitation  of  feudal  succession  to  the  male  arose  from 
the  obligation  of  the  tenant  to  attend  his  chief  in  war. 

'  As  times  and  opinions  are  always  changing,  I  know  not  whether 
it  be  not  usurpation  to  prescribe  rules  to  posterity,  by  presuming 
to  judge  of  what  we  cannot  know  :  and  I  know  not  whether  I  fully 
approve  either  your  design  or  your  father's,  to  limit  that  succession 
which  descended  to  you  unlimited.   If  we  arc  to  leave  sartu?n  tectum ' 

'  The  technical  term  in  Roman  law  for  a  building  in  good  repair, 

to 


47^  Johnsoii  s  first  letter  Oil  entails.       [a.d.  1770. 

to  posterity,  what  we  have  without  any  merit  of  our  own  received 
from  our  ancestors,  should  not  choice  and  free-will  be  kept  unvio- 
lated  ?  Is  land  to  be  treated  with  more  reverence  than  liberty  ? — 
If  this  consideration  should  restrain  your  father  from  disinheriting 
some  of  the  males,  does  it  leave  you  the  power  of  disinheriting  all 
the  females  ? 

'  Can  the  possessor  of  a  feudal  estate  make  any  will  ?  Can  he 
appoint,  out  of  the  inheritance,  any  portions  to  his  daughters? 
There  seems  to  be  a  very  shadowy  difference  between  the  power 
of  leaving  land,  and  of  leaving  money  to  be  raised  from  land ;  be- 
tween leaving  an  estate  to  females,  and  leaving  the  male  heir,  in 
effect,  only  their  steward. 

'  Suppose  at  one  time  a  law  that  allowed  only  males  to  inherit, 
and  during  the  continuance  of  this  law  many  estates  to  have  de- 
scended, passing  by  the  females,  to  remoter  heirs.  Suppose  after- 
wards the  law  repealed  in  correspondence  with  a  change  of  man- 
ners, and  women  made  capable  of  inheritance  ;  would  not  then  the 
tenure  of  estates  be  changed  t  Could  the  women  have  no  benefit 
from  a  law  made  in  their  favour  ?  Must  they  be  passed  by  upon 
moral  principles  for  ever,  because  they  were  once  excluded  by  a 
legal  prohibition.?  Or  may  that  which  passed  only  to  males  by 
one  law,  pass  likewise  to  females  by  another  ? 

'You  mention  your  resolution  to  maintain  the  right  of  your 
brothers  ' :  I  do  not  see  how  any  of  their  rights  are  invaded. 

'  As  your  whole  difficulty  arises  from  the  act  of  your  ancestor, 
who  diverted  the  succession  from  the  females,  you  enquire,  very 
properly,  what  were  his  motives,  and  what  was  his  intention ;  for 
you  certainly  are  not  bound  by  his  act  more  than  he  intended  to 
bind  you,  nor  hold  your  land  on  harder  or  stricter  terms  than  those 
on  which  it  was  granted. 

'  Intentions  must  be  gathered  from  acts.  When  he  left  the  es- 
tate to  his  nephew,  by  excluding  his  daughters,  was  it,  or  was  it  not, 
in  his  power  to  have  perpetuated  the  succession  to  the  males  1  If 
he  could  have  done  it,  he  seems  to  have  shown,  by  omitting  it,  that 
he  did  not  desire  it  to  be  done  ;  and,  upon  your  own  principles, 
you  will  not  easily  prove  your  right  to  destroy  that  capacity  of  suc- 
cession which  your  ancestors  have  left. 

'  If  your  ancestor  had  not  the  power  of  making  a  perpetual  set- 
tlement ;  and  if,  therefore,  we  cannot  judge  distinctly  of  his  inten- 
tions, yet  his  act  can  only  be  considered  as  an  example ;  it  makes 

*  Which  term  I  applied  to  all  the  heirs  male.     Boswell. 

not 


Aetat.  07.]  Lovd  Hailes  on  entails.  479 

not  an  obligation.  And,  as  you  observe,  he  set  no  example  of  rig- 
orous adherence  to  the  line  of  succession.  He  that  overlooked  a 
brother,  would  not  wonder  that  little  regard  is  shown  to  remote 
relations. 

'  As  the  rules  of  succession  are,  in  a  great  part,  purely  legal,  no 
man  can  be  supposed  to  bequeath  any  thing,  but  upon  legal  terms  ; 
he  can  grant  no  power  which  the  law  denies ;  and  if  he  makes  no 
special  and  definite  limitation,  he  confers  all  the  power  which  the 
law  allows. 

*  Your  ancestor,  for  some  reason,  disinherited  his  daughters  ;  but 
it  no  more  follows  that  he  intended  this  act  as  a  rule  for  posterity, 
than  the  disinheriting  of  his  brother. 

'  If,  therefore,  you  ask  by  what  right  your  father  admits  daugh- 
ters to  inheritance,  ask  yourself,  first,  by  what  right  you  require 
them  to  be  excluded  ? 

'  It  appears,  upon  reflection,  that  your  father  excludes  nobody  ; 
he  only  admits  nearer  females  to  inherit  before  males  more  remote ; 
and  the  exclusion  is  purely  consequential. 

'These,  dear  Sir,  are  my  thoughts,  immethodical  and  deliber- 
ative ;  but,  perhaps,  you  may  find  in  them  some  glimmering  of 
evidence. 

'  I  cannot,  however,  but  again  recommend  to  you  a  conference 
with  Lord  Hailes,  whom  you  know  to  be  both  a  Lawyer  and  a 
Christian. 

'  Make  my  compliments  to  Mrs.  Boswell,  though  she  does  not 
love  me. 

'  I  am.  Sir, 

'  Your  affectionate  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'Feb.  3, 1773'-' 

I  had  follo\ved  his  recommendation  and  consulted  Lord 
Hailes,  who  upon  this  subject  had  a  firm  opinion  contrary 
to  mine.  His  Lordship  obligingly  took  the  trouble  to  write 
me  a  letter,  in  which  he  discussed  with  legal  and  historical 
learning,  the  points  in  which  I  saw  much  difficulty,  main- 
taining that  *  the  succession  of  heirs  general  was  the  suc- 
cession, by  the  law  of  Scotland,  from  the  throne  to  the  cot- 
tage, as  far  as  wc  can  learn  it  by  record  ;'  observing  that 
the   estate   of  our  family  had   not    been    limited  to  heirs 

'  A  misprint  for  1776. 

male  ; 


480  Joh7iso7is  second  letter  on  entails,     [a.d.  1776. 

male ;  and  that  though  an  heir  male  had  in  one  instance 
been  chosen  in  preference  to  nearer  females,  that  had  been 
an  arbitrary  act,  which  had  seemed  to  be  best  in  the  em- 
barrassed state  of  affairs  at  that  time ;  and  the  fact  was, 
that  upon  a  fair  computation  of  the  value  of  land  and 
money  at  the  time,  applied  to  the  estate  and  the  burthens 
upon  it,  there  was  nothing  given  to  the  heir  male  but  the 
skeleton  of  an  estate.  '  The  plea  of  conscience,  (said  his 
Lordship,)  which  you  put,  is  a  most  respectable  one,  es- 
pecially when  conscience  and  self  3.rQ  on  different  sides.  But 
I  think  that  conscience  is  not  well  informed,  and  that  self 
and  she  ought  on  this  occasion  to  be  of  a  side.' 

This  letter,  which  had  considerable  influence  upon  my 
mind,  I  sent  to  Dr.  Johnson,  begging  to  hear  from  him 
again,  upon  this  interesting  question. 


'To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 

'Dear  Sir, 

'  Having  not  any  acquaintance  with  the  laws  or  customs  of 
Scotland,  I  endeavoured  to  consider  your  question  upon  general 
principles,  and  found  nothing  of  much  validity  that  I  could  oppose 
to  this  position  :  "  He  who  inherits  a  fief  unlimited  by  his  ancestors, 
inherits  the  power  of  limiting  it  according  to  his  own  judgement 
or  opinion."     If  this  be  true,  you  may  join  with  your  father. 

'  Further  consideration  produces  another  conclusion  :  "  He  who 
receives  a  fief  unlimited  by  his  ancestors,  gives  his  heirs  some  rea- 
son to  complain,  if  he  does  not  transmit  it  unlimited  to  posterity. 
For  why  should  he  make  the  state  of  others  worse  than  his  own, 
without  a  reason  V  If  this  be  true,  though  neither  you  nor  your 
father  are  about  to  do  what  is  quite  right,  but  as  your  father  vio- 
lates (I  think)  the  legal  succession  least,  he  seems  to  be  nearer  the 
right  than  yourself. 

'  It  cannot  but  occur  that  "  Women  have  natural  and  equitable 
claims  as  well  as  men,  and  these  claims  are  not  to  be  capriciously 
or  lightly  superseded  or  infringed."  When  fiefs  implied  military 
service,  it  is  easily  discerned  why  females  could  not  inherit  them; 
but  that  reason  is  now  at  an  end.  As  manners  make  laws,  man- 
ners likewise  repeal  them. 

'  These  are  the  general  conclusions  which  I  have  attained.  None 
of  them  are  very  favourable  to  your  scheme  of  entail,  nor  perhaps 

to 


Aetat.  67.]      Joluisoii  s  third  letter  on  entails.  48 1 

to  any  scheme.  My  observation,  that  only  he  who  acquires  an  es- 
tate may  bequeath  it  capriciously ',  if  it  contains  any  conviction, 
includes  this  position  likewise,  that  only  he  who  acquires  an  estate 
may  entail  it  capriciously.  But  I  think  it  may  be  safely  presumed, 
that  "  he  who  inherits  an  estate,  inherits  all  the  power  legally  con- 
comitant ;"  and  that  '•  He  who  gives  or  leaves  unlimited  an  estate 
legally  limitable,  must  be  presumed  to  give  that  power  of  limitation 
which  he  omitted  to  take  away,  and  to  commit  future  contingencies 
to  future  prudence."  In  these  two  positions  I  believe  Lord  Hailes 
will  advise  you  to  rest ;  every  other  notion  of  possession  seems  to 
me  full  of  difficulties  and  embarrassed  with  scruples. 

'If  these  axioms  be  allowed,  you  have  arrived  now  at  full  liberty 
without  the  help  of  particular  circumstances,  which,  however,  have 
in  your  case-  great  weight.  You  very  rightly  observe,  that  he  who 
passing  by  his  brother  gave  the  inheritance  to  his  nephew,  could 
limit  no  more  than  he  gave  ;  and  by  Lord  Hailes's  estimate  of 
fourteen  years'  purchase,  what  he  gave  was  no  more  than  you  may 
easily  entail  according  to  your  own  opinion,  if  that  opinion  should 
finally  prevail. 

'  Lord  Hailes's  suspicion  that  entails  are  encroachments  on  the 
dominion  of  Providence,  may  be  extended  to  all  hereditary  privi- 
leges and  all  permanent  institutions ;  I  do  not  see  why  it  may  not 
be  extended  to  any  provision  for  the  present  hour,  since  all  care 
about  futurity  proceeds  upon  a  supposition,  that  we  know  at  least 
in  some  degree  what  will  be  future.  Of  the  future  we  certainly 
know  nothing ;  but  we  may  form  conjectures  from  the  past ;  and 
the  power  of  forming  conjectures,  includes,  in  my  opinion,  the  duty 
of  acting  in  conformity  to  that  probability  which  we  discover. 
Providence  gives  the  power,  of  which  reason  teaches  the  use. 
'  I  am,  dear  Sir,  your  most  faithful  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  Feb.  9,  1776.' 

'  I  hope  I  shall  get  some  ground  now  with  Mrs.  Boswell ;  make 
my  compliments  to  her,  and  to  the  little  people. 

'  Don't  burn  papers  ;  they  may  be  safe  enough  in  your  own  box, 
— you  will  wish  to  see  them  hereafter.' 

To  THE  Same. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  To  the  letters  which  I  have  written  about  your  great  question 

'  I  had  reminded  him  of  his  obser\'ation  mentioned,  ante,  ii.  299. 
Boswell. 

IL — 31  I  have 


482  Johnsons  third  letter  on  entails.      [a.d.  1776. 

I  have  nothing  to  add.  If  your  conscience  is  satisfied,  you  have 
now  only  your  prudence  to  consult.  I  long  for  a  letter,  that  I  may 
know  how  this  troublesome  and  vexatious  question  is  at  last  de- 
cided '.  I  hope  that  it  will  at  last  end  well.  Lord  Hailes's  letter 
was  very  friendly,  and  very  seasonable,  but  I  think  his  aversion 
from  entails  has  something  in  it  like  superstition.  Providence  is 
not  counteracted  by  any  means  which  Providence  puts  into  our 
power.  The  continuance  and  propagation  of  families  makes  a 
great  part  of  the  Jewish  law,  and  is  by  no  means  prohibited  in  the 
Christian  institution,  though  the  necessity  of  it  continues  no  longer. 
Hereditary  tenures  are  established  in  all  civilised  countries,  and 
are  accompanied  in  most  with  hereditary  authority.  Sir  William 
Temple  considers  our  constitution  as  defective,  that  there  is  not 
an  unalienable  estate  in  land  connected  with  a  peerage  "^ ;  and  Lord 
Bacon  mentions  as  a  proof  that  the  Turks  are  Barbarians,  their 
want  of  Stirpes,  as  he  calls  them,  or  hereditary  rank '.  Do  not  let 
your  mind,  when  it  is  freed  from  the  supposed  necessity  of  a  rig- 
orous entail,  be  entangled  with  contrary  objections,  and  think  all 

>  The  entail  framed  by  my  father  with  various  judicious  clauses, 
was  settled  by  him  and  me,  settling  the  estate  upon  the  heirs  male  of 
his  grandfather,  which  I  found  had  been  already  done  by  my  grand- 
father, imperfectly,  but  so  as  to  be  defeated  only  by  selling  the  lands. 
I  was  freed  by  Dr.  Johnson  from  scruples  of  conscientious  obligation, 
and  could,  therefore,  gratify  my  father.  But  my  opinion  and  partial- 
ity for  male  succession,  in  its  full  extent,  remained  unshaken.  Yet 
let  me  not  be  thought  harsh  or  unkind  to  daughters:  for  my  no- 
tion is,  that  they  should  be  treated  with  great  affection  and  tender- 
ness, and  always  participate  of  the  prosperity  of  the  family.     Bos- 

WELL. 

""  Temple,  in  Popular  Discontents  ( IVorks,  iii.  62-64),  examines  the 
general  dissatisfaction  with  the  judicature  of  the  House  of  Lords. 
Till  the  end  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  he  states,  the  peers,  who  were  few 
in  number,  were  generally  possessed  of  great  estates  which  rendered 
them  less  subject  to  corruption.  As  one  remedy  for  the  evil  exist- 
ing in  his  time,  he  suggests  that  the  Crown  shall  create  no  Baron, 
who  shall  not  at  the  same  time  entail  ^{^4000  a  year  upon  that  honour, 
whilst  it  continues  in  his  family;  a  Viscount,  ^{^5000;  an  Earl,  £6000; 
a  Marquis,  £7000 ;  and  a  Duke,  ^8000. 

^  'A  cruel  tyranny  bathed  in  the  blood  of  their  Emperors  upon 
every  succession  ;  a  heap  of  vassals  and  slaves ;  no  nobles,  no  gentle- 
men, no  freemen,  no  inheritance  of  land,  no  stirp  of  ancient  families, 
[nuUae  stirpes  antiquae].'     Spedding's  Bacon,  vii.  22. 

entails 


Aetat.  67.]  BosweW s  mind  illuminated.  483 

entails  unlaw'ful,  till  you  have  cogent  arguments,  which  I  believe 
you  will  never  find.     I  am  afraid  of  scruples  '. 

'  I  have  now  sent  all  Lord  Hailes's  papers ;  part  I  found  hidden 
in  a  drawer  in  which  I  had  laid  them  for  security,  and  had  forgot- 
ten them.  Part  of  these  are  written  twice  :  I  have  returned  both 
the  copies.     Part  I  had  read  before. 

'  Be  so  kind  as  to  return  Lord  Hailes  my  most  respectful  thanks 
for  his  first  volume  ;  his  accuracy  strikes  me  with  wonder  ;  his  nar- 
rative is  far  superiour  to  that  of  Renault,  as  I  have  formerly  men- 
tioned. 

'  I  am  afraid  that  the  trouble,  which  my  irregularity  and  delay 
has  cost  him,  is  greater,  far  greater,  than  any  good  that  I  can  do 
him  will  ever  recompense ;  but  if  I  have  any  more  copy,  I  will  try 
to  do  better. 

'  Pray  let  me  know  if  Mrs.  Boswell  is  friends  with  me,  and  pay 
my  respects  to  Veronica,  and  Euphemia,  and  Alexander. 
'  I  am.  Sir, 

'  Your  most  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 

'  Februaiy  15,  1775  [1776].' 

'  Mr.  Boswell  to  Dr.  Johnson. 

'  Edinburgh,  Feb.  20,  1776. 
******* 

'  You  have  illuminated  my  mind  and  relieved  me  from  imagi- 
nary shackles  of  conscientious  obligation.  Were  it  necessary,  I 
could  immediately  join  in  an  entail  upon  the  series  of  heirs  ap- 
proved by  my  father ;  but  it  is  better  not  to  act  too  suddenly.' 

'  Dr.  Johnson  to  Mr.  Boswell. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  I  am  glad  that  what  I  could  think  or  say  has  at  all  contrib- 
uted to  quiet  your  thoughts.  Your  resolution  not  to  act,  till  your 
opinion  is  confirmed  by  more  deliberation,  is  very  just.  If  you 
have  been  scrupulous,  do  not  now  be  rash.  I  hope  that  as  you 
think  more,  and  take  opportunities  of  talking  with  men  intelligent 

■  '  Let  me  warn  you  very  earnestly  against  scruples,'  he  wrote  on 
March  5,  of  this  year : — '  I  am  no  friend  to  scruples,'  he  had  said  at 
St.  Andrew's.  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  19.  On  his  death -bed,  he 
said:  —  'Scruples  made  many  men  miserable,  but  few  men  good.' 
Croker's  Boswell,  p.  844. 

in 


484  Remedies  for  melancholy.  [a.d.  1776. 

in  questions  of  property,  you  will  be   able  to  free  yourself  from 
every  difficulty. 

'  When  I  wrote  last,  I  sent,  I  think,  ten  packets.  Did  you  re- 
ceive them  all  ? 

'  You  must  tell  Mrs.  Boswell  that  I  suspected  her  to  have  written 
without  your  knowledge  ',  and  therefore  did  not  return  any  answer, 
lest  a  clandestine  correspondence  should  have  been  perniciously 
discovered.     I  will  write  to  her  soon.     ******. 
'  I  am,  dear  Sir, 

'  Most  affectionately  yours, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'  Feb.  24, 1776.' 

Having  communicated  to  Lord  Hailes  what  Dr.  Johnson 
wrote  concerning  the  question  which  perplexed  me  so  much, 
his  Lordship  wrote  to  me:  'Your  scruples  have  produced 
more  fruit  than  I  ever  expected  from  them  ;  an  excellent 
dissertation  on  general  principles  of  morals  and  law.' 

I  wrote  to  Dr.  Johnson  on  the  20th  of  February,  com- 
plaining of  melancholy,  and  expressing  a  strong  desire  to 
be  with  him  ;  informing  him  that  the  ten  packets  came  all 
safe ;  that  Lord  Hailes  was  much  obliged  to  him,  and  said 
he  had  almost  wholly  removed  his  scruples  against  entails. 

*To  James  Boswell,  Esq. 

'  Dear  Sir, 

'  I  have  not  had  your  letter  half  an  hour ;  as  you  lay  so  much 
weight  upon  my  notions,  I  should  think  it  not  just  to  delay  my 
answer. 

'  I  am  very  sorry  that  your  melancholy  should  return,  and  should 
be  sorry  likewise  if  it  could  have  no  relief  but  from  company.  My 
counsel  you  may  have  when  you  are  pleased  to  require  it ;  but  of 
my  company  you  cannot  in  the  next  month  have  much,  for  Mr. 
Thrale  will  take  me  to  Italy,  he  says,  on  the  first  of  April. 

'Let  me  warn  you  very  earnestly  against  scruples.  I  am  glad 
that  you  are  reconciled  to  your  settlement,  and  think  it  a  great 
honour  to  have  shaken  Lord  Hailes's  opinion  of  entails.  Do  not, 
however,  hope  wholly  to  reason  away  your  troubles ;  do  not  feed 

'  A  letter  to  him  on  the  interesting  subject  of  the  family  settlement, 
which  I  had  read.     Boswell. 

them 


Aetat.  67.]  The  University  of  Oxford.  485 

them  with  attention,  and  they  will  die  imperceptibly  away.  Fix 
your  thoughts  upon  your  business,  fill  your  intervals  with  com- 
pany, and  sunshine  will  again  break  in  upon  your  mind'.  If  you 
will  come  to  me,  you  must  come  very  quickly ;  and  even  then  I 
know  not  but  we  may  scour  the  country  together,  for  I  have  a 
mind  to  see  Oxford  and  Lichfield,  before  I  set  out  on  this  long 
journey.     To  this  I  can  only  add,  that 

'  I  am,  dear  Sir, 
'  Your  most  affectionate  humble  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'March  5,  1776.' 

To  THE  Same. 
'Dear  Sir, 

'  Very  early  in  April  we  leave  England,  and  in  the  beginning 
of  the  next  week  I  shall  leave  London  for  a  short  time ;  of  this  I 
think  it  necessary  to  inform  you,  that  you  may  not  be  disappointed 
in  any  of  your  enterprises.  I  had  not  fully  resolved  to  go  into  the 
country  before  this  day. 

'  Please  to  make  my  compliments  to  Lord  Hailes ;  and  mention 
very  particularly  to  Mrs.  Boswell  my  hope  that  she  is  reconciled  to, 
Sir, 

'  Your  faithful  servant, 

'  Sam.  Johnson.' 
'March  12,  1776.' 

Above  thirty  years  ago,  the  heirs  of  Lord  Chancellor  Clar- 
endon presented  the  University  of  Oxford  with  the  con- 
tinuation of  his  History,  and  such  other  of  his  Lordship's 
manuscripts  as  had  not  been  published,  on  condition  that 
the  profits  arising  from  their  publication  should  be  applied 
to  the  establishment  of  a  Manege  in  the  University.  The 
gift  was  accepted  in  full  convocation.     A  person  being  now 

'  PaoH  had  given  Boswell  much  the  same  advice.  '  All  this,'  said 
Paoli, '  is  melancholy.  I  have  also  studied  metaphysics.  I  know  the 
arguments  for  fate  and  free-will,  for  the  materiality  and  immateriality 
of  the  soul,  and  even  the  subtle  arguments  for  and  against  the  exist- 
ence of  matter.  Ma  lasciaino  qiiexte  dispute  ai  oziosi.  But  let  us 
leave  these  disputes  to  the  idle.  lo  tcngo  sempre  fermo  im  gran  pcn- 
siero.  I  hold  always  firm  one  great  object.  I  never  feel  a  moment 
of  despondency.'  Boswell's  Corsica,  ed.  1879,  p.  193.  Sec  post,  March 
14, 1781. 

recommended 


486  The  Clarendon  Press.  [a.d.  1776. 

recommended  to  Dr.  Johnson,  as  fit  to  superintend  this  pro- 
posed riding-school,  he  exerted  himself  with  that  zeal  for 
which  he  was  remarkable  upon  every  similar  occasion'.  But, 
on  enquir)^  into  the  matter,  he  found  that  the  scheme  was 
not  likely  to  be  soon  carried  into  execution ;  the  profits  aris- 
ing from  the  Clarendon  press  being,  from  some  mismanage- 
ment, very  scanty.  This  having  been  explained  to  him  by 
a  respectable  dignitary  of  the  church,  who  had  good  means 
of  knowing  it,  he  wrote  a  letter  upon  the  subject,  which 
at  once  exhibits  his  extraordinary  precision  and  acuteness, 
and  his  warm  attachment  to  his  Alma  Mater. 


'  To  THE  Reverend  Dr.  Wetherell,  Master  of 
University-College,  Oxford. 

'  Dear  Sir, 

'  Few  things  are  more  unpleasant  than  the  transaction  of  busi- 
ness with  men  who  are  above  knowing  or  caring  what  they  have 
to  do ;  such  as  the  trustees  for  Lord  Cornbury's  institution  Avill, 
perhaps,  appear,  when  you  have  read  Dr.  ****** *'s  letter. 

'The  last  part  of  the  Doctor's  letter  is  of  great  importance. 
The  complaint^  which  he  makes  I  have  heard  long  ago,  and  did 
not  know  but  it  was  redressed.  It  is  unhappy  that  a  practice  so 
erroneous  has  not  yet  been  altered ;  for  altered  it  must  be,  or  our 
press  will  be  useless,  with  all  its  privileges.  The  booksellers,  who, 
like  all  other  men,  have  strong  prejudices  in  their  own  favour,  are 
enough  inclined  to  think  the  practice  of  printing  and  selling  books 
by  any  but  themselves,  an  encroachment  on  the  rights  of  their  fra- 
ternity ;  and  have  need  of  stronger  inducements  to  circulate  aca- 
demical publications  than  those  of  one  another  ;  for,  of  that  mutual 
co-operation  by  which  the  general  trade  is  carried  on,  the  Univer- 
sity can  bear  no  part.     Of  those  whom  he  neither  loves  nor  fears, 

.  .  1  Johnson,  in  his  letters  to  the  Thrales  during  the  year  1775,  men- 
tions this  riding-school  eight  or  nine  times.  The  person  recommended 
was  named  Carter.  Gibbon  {HTzsc.  Works,  i.  72)  says  '  the  profit  of  the 
History  has  been  appHed  to  the  establishment  of  a  riding-school,  that 
the  polite  exercises  might  be  taught,  I  know  not  with  what  success, 
in  the  University.' 

-'  I  suppose  the  complaint  was,  that  the  trustees  of  the  Oxford 
Press  did  not  allow  the  London  booksellers  a  sufficient  profit  upon 
vending  their  publications.     Boswell. 

and 


Aetat.  G7.]  The  trade  in  books.  487 

and  from  \Yhom  he  expects  no  reciprocation  of  good  offices,  why- 
should  any  man  promote  the  interest  but  for  profit  ?  I  suppose, 
with  all  our  scholastick  ignorance  of  mankind,  we  are  still  too 
knowing  to  expect  that  the  booksellers  will  erect  themselves  into 
patrons,  and  buy  and  sell  under  the  influence  of  a  disinterested 
zeal  for  the  promotion  of  learning. 

'  To  the  booksellers,  if  we  look  for  either  honour  or  profit  from 
our  press,  not  only  their  common  profit,  but  something  more  must 
be  allowed ;  and  if  books,  printed  at  Oxford,  are  expected  to  be 
rated  at  a  high  price,  that  price  must  be  levied  on  the  publick,  and 
paid  by  the  ultimate  purchaser,  not  by  the  intermediate  agents. 
What  price  shall  be  set  upon  the  book,  is,  to  the  booksellers, 
wholly  indifferent,  provided  that  they  gain  a  proportionate  profit 
by  negociating  the  sale. 

'  Why  books  printed  at  Oxford  should  be  particularly  dear,  I 
am,  however,  unable  to  find.  We  pay  no  rent ;  we  inherit  many 
of  our  instruments  and  materials  ;  lodging  and  victuals  are  cheaper 
than  at  London ;  and,  therefore,  workmanship  ought,  at  least,  not 
to  be  dearer.  Our  expences  are  naturally  less  than  those  of  book- 
sellers ;  and,  in  most  cases,  communities  are  content  with  less 
profit  than  individuals. 

'  It  is,  perhaps,  not  considered  through  how  many  hands  a  book 
often  passes,  before  it  comes  into  those  of  the  reader ;  or  what 
part  of  the  profit  each  hand  must  retain,  as  a  motive  for  transmit- 
ting it  to  the  next. 

'  We  will  call  our  primary  agent  in  London,  Mr.  Cadell ',  who 
receives  our  books  from  us,  gives  them  room  in  his  warehouse, 
and  issues  them  on  demand ;  by  him  they  are  sold  to  Mr.  Dilly 
a  wholesale  bookseller,  who  sends  them  into  the  country ;  and  the 
last  seller  is  the  country  bookseller.  Here  are  three  profits  to  be 
paid  between  the  printer  and  the  reader,  or  in  the  style  of  com- 
merce, between  the  manufacturer  and  the  consumer ;  and  if  any  of 
these  profits  is  too  penuriously  distributed,  the  process  of  com- 
merce is  interrupted. 

'  We  are  now  come  to  the  practical  question,  what  is  to  be  done  ? 
You  will  tell  me,  with  reason,  that  I  have  said  nothing,  till  I  de- 
clare how  much,  according  to  my  opinion,  of  the  ultimate  price 
ought  to  be  distributed  through  the  whole  succession  of  sale. 

'  Cadell  puljlishcd  TJie  I-'alse  Alar)n  and  The  Joiirnfy  to  the  Heb- 
rides. Gibbon  described  him  as  '  That  honest  and  liberal  bookseller.' 
Stewart's  Life  of  Robertson,  p.  366. 

'  The 


488  The  trade  iji  books.  [a.d.  1770. 

'The  deduction,  I  am  afraid,  will  appear  very  great:  but  let  it 
be  considered  before  it  is  refused.  We  must  allow,  for  profit, 
between  thirty  and  thirty-five  per  cent.,  between  six  and  seven  shil- 
lings in  the  pound  ;  that  is,  for  every  book  which  costs  the  last 
buyer  twenty  shillings,  we  must  charge  Mr.  Cadell  with  something 
less  than  fourteen.  We  must  set  the  copies  at  fourteen  shillings 
each,  and  superadd  what  is  called  the  quarterly-book,  or  for  every 
hundred  books  so  charged  we  must  deliver  an  hundred  and  four. 

'  The  profits  will  then  stand  thus  : — 

'  Mr.  Cadell,  who  runs  no  hazard,  and  gives  no  credit,  will  be 
paid  for  warehouse  room  ancl  attendance  by  a  shilling  profit  on 
each  book,  and  his  chance  of  the  quarterly-book. 

'  Mr.  Dilly,  who  buys  the  book  for  fifteen  shillings,  and  who  will 
expect  the  quarterly-book  if  he  takes  five  and  twenty,  will  send  it 
to  his  country  customer  at  sixteen  and  six,  by  which,  at  the  hazard 
of  loss,  and  the  certainty  of  long  credit,  he  gains  the  regular  profit 
of  ten/^r  cent,  which  is  expected  in  the  wholesale  trade. 

'The  country  bookseller,  buying  at  sixteen  and  sixpence,  and 
commonly  trusting  a  considerable  time,  gains  but  three  and  six- 
pence, and  if  he  trusts  a  year,  not  much  more  than  two  and  six- 
pence ;  otherwise  than  as  he  may,  perhaps,  take  as  long  credit  as 
he  gives. 

'  With  less  profit  than  this,  and  more  you  see  he  cannot  have, 
the  country  bookseller  cannot  live  ;  for  his  receipts  are  small,  and 
his  debts  sometimes  bad. 

'  Thus,  dear  Sir,  I  have  been  incited  by  Dr.  *******'s  letter  to 
give  you  a  detail  of  the  circulation  of  books,  which,  perhaps,  every 
man  has  not  had  opportunity  of  knowing;  and  which  those  who 
know  it,  do  not,  perhaps,  always  distinctly  consider. 

'  I  am,  &c. 

'  Sam.  Johnson'.' 

'  March  12,  1776.' 

Having  arrived  in  London  late  on  Friday,  the  15th  of 
March,  I  hastened  next  morning  to  wait  on  Dr.  Johnson,  at 
his  house;  but  found  he  was  removed  from  Johnson's-court, 

'  I  am  happy  in  giving  this  full  and  clear  statement  to  the  publick, 
to  vindicate,  by  the  authority  of  the  greatest  authour  of  his  age,  that 
respectable  body  of  men,  the  Booksellers  of  London,  from  vulgar  re- 
flections, as  if  their  profits  were  exorbitant,  when,  in  truth.  Dr.  Johnson 
has  here  allowed  them  more  than  they  usually  demand.     Boswell. 

No.  7, 


Aetat.  67.]         Johnsons  house  in  Bolt-court.  489 

No.  7,  to  Bolt-court,  No.  8",  still  keeping  to  his  favourite 
Fleet-street.  My  reflection  at  the  time  upon  this  change 
as  marked  in  my  Journal,  is  as  follows:  'I  felt  a  foolish 
regret  that  he  had  left  a  court  which  bore  his  name'';  but 
it  was  not  foolish  to  be  affected  with  some  tenderness  of 
regard  for  a  place  in  which  I  had  seen  him  a  great  deal, 
from  whence  I  had  often  issued  a  better  and  a  happier  man 
than  when  I  went  in,  and  which  had  often  appeared  to  my 
imagination  while  I  trod  its  pavements,  in  the  solemn  dark- 
ness of  the  night,  to  be  sacred  to  wisdom  and  piety  ^'  Be- 
ing informed  that  he  was  at  Mr.  Thrale's,  in  the  Borough, 
I  hastened  thither,  and  found  Mrs.  Thrale  and  him  at  break- 
fast. I  was  kindly  welcomed.  In  a  moment  he  was  in  a 
full  glow  of  conversation,  and  I  felt  myself  elevated  as  if 
brought  into  another  state  of  being.  Mrs.  Thrale  and  I 
looked  to  each  other  while  he  talked,  and  our  looks  ex- 
pressed our  congenial  admiration  and  affection  for  him.  I 
shall  ever  recollect  this  scene  with  great  pleasure.  I  ex- 
claimed to  her, '  I  am  now,  intellectually,  Hcrmippus  redivi- 
viis,  I  am  quite  restored  by  him,  by  transfusion  of  mind".' 

'  '  Behind  the  house  was  a  garden  which  he  took  delight  in  water- 
ing; a  room  on  the  ground-floor  was  assigned  to  Mrs.  WilUams,  and 
the  whole  of  the  two  pair  of  stairs  floor  was  made  a  repository  for 
his  books ;  one  of  the  rooms  thereon  being  his  study.  Here,  in  the 
intervals  of  his  residence  at  Streatham,  he  received  the  visits  of  his 
friends,  and  to  the  most  intimate  of  them  sometimes  gave  not  inele- 
gant dinners.'  Hawkins's /<^///wcw,  p.  531.  He  wrote  to  Mrs.  Thrale 
on  Aug.  14,  1780: — 'This  is  all  that  I  have  to  tell  you,  except  that  I 
have  three  bunches  of  grapes  on  a  vine  in  my  garden  :  at  least  this  is 
all  that  I  will  now  tell  of  my  garden.'  Piozzi  Letters,  ii.  178.  This 
house  was  burnt  down  in  1819.     Notes  and  Queries,  ist  S.,  v.  233. 

*  He  said,  when  in  Scotland,  that  he  vizs  Johnson  of  that  Ilk.  Bos- 
WELL.     See  post,  April  28,  1778,  note. 

'  See  ante,  ii.  263. 

*  See  ante,  i.  434.  Boswf.ll.  Boswcll  refers  to  the  work  of  Dr. 
Cohausen  of  Coblentz,  Hermippus  Redivivus.  Dr.  Campbell  trans- 
lated it  {ante,  i.  483),  under  the  title  of  Hermippus  Redivivus,  or  rnc 
Sages  Triumph  over  Old  Age  and  the  Grave.  Cohausen  maintained 
that  life  might  be  prolonged  to  115  years  by  breathing  the  breath  of 
healthy  young  women.     He  founded  his  theory  'on  a  Roman  inscrip- 

'  There 


490  Feudal  barbarity.  [a.d.  1776. 

*  There  are  many,  (she  replied,)  who  admire  and  respect  Mr. 
Johnson  ;  but  you  and  I  love  him.' 

He  seemed  very  happy  in  the  near  prospect  of  going  to 
Italy  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thrale.  '  But,  (said  he,)  before 
leaving  England  I  am  to  take  a  jaunt  to  Oxford,  Birming- 
ham, my  native  city  Lichfield,  and  my  old  friend.  Dr.  Tay- 
lor's, at  Ashbourn,  in  Derbyshire.  I  shall  go  in  a  few  days, 
and  you,  Boswell,  shall  go  with  me.'  I  was  ready  to  ac- 
company him  ;  being  willing  even  to  leave  London  to  have 
the  pleasure  of  his  conversation. 

I  mentioned  with  much  regret  the  extravagance  of  the 
representative  of  a  great  family  in  Scotland,  by  which  there 
was  danger  of  its  being  ruined ;  and  as  Johnson  respected 
it  for  its  antiquity,  he  joined  with  me  in  thinking  it  would 
be  happy  if  this  person  should  die.  Mrs.  Thrale  seemed 
shocked  at  this,  as  feudal  barbarity ;  and  said,  '  I  do  not 
understand  this  preference  of  the  estate  to  its  owner ;  of 
the  land  to  the  man  who  walks  upon  that  land.'  JOHN- 
SON. '  Nay,  Madam,  it  is  not  a  preference  of  the  land  to 
its  owner,  it  is  the  preference  of  a  family  to  an  individual. 
Here  is  an  establishment  in  a  country,  which  is  of  impor- 
tance for  ages,  not  only  to  the  chief  but  to  his  people ; 
an  establishment  which  extends  upwards  and  downwards ; 
that  this  should  be  destroyed  by  one  idle  fellow  is  a  sad 
thing.' 

tion — ALScuIapio  et  Safiitati  L.  Colodius  Hcrmippus  gui  vixit  annos 
CXV.dies  V.  pitcllarwii  a}ihcUtu!  He  maintained  that  one  of  the 
most  eligible  conditions  of  life  was  that  of  a  Confessor  of  youthful 
nuns.  Lowndes's  Bibl.  Man.  p.  488,  and  Ge7it.  Mag.  xiii.  279.  I.  D'ls- 
raeli  {Curiosities  of  Literature,  ed.  1834,  ii.  102)  describes  Campbell's 
book  as  a  '  curious  banter  on  the  hermetic  philosophy  and  the  uni- 
versal medicine ;  the  grave  irony  is  so  closely  kept  up,  that  it  de- 
ceived for  a  length  of  time  the  most  learned.  Campbell  assured  a 
friend  it  was  a  mere  Jeu-d'-esprit.'  Lord  E.  Fitzmaurice  {Life  of 
Shelburne,  iii.  447)  says  that  Ingenhousz,  a  Dutch  physician  who  lived 
with  Shelburne,  combated  in  one  of  his  works  the  notion  held  by  cer- 
tain schoolmasters,  that  '  it  was  wholesome  to  inhale  the  air  which 
has  passed  through  the  lungs  of  their  pupils,  closing  the  windows  in 
order  purposely  to  facilitate  that  operation.' 

He 


^>*=w 


DR.  JOHNSON  S    HOUSE, 

Bolt   Court,   Fleet    Street. 


Aetat.  67.]  The  tise  of  entails.  491 

He  said,  '  Entails'  are  good,  because  it  is  good  to  preserve 
in  a  country,  serieses  of  men,  to  whom  the  people  are  ac- 
customed to  look  up  as  to  their  leaders.  But  I  am  for  leav- 
ing a  quantity  of  land  in<commerce,  to  excite  industry,  and 
keep  money  in  the  country ;  for  if  no  land  were  to  be 
bought  in  the  country,  there  would  be  no  encouragement 
to  acquire  wealth,  because  a  family  could  not  be  founded 
there ;  or  if  it  were  acquired,  it  must  be  carried  away  to 
another  country  where  land  may  be  bought.  And  although 
the  land  in  every  country  will  remain  the  same,  and  be  as 
fertile  where  there  is  no  money,  as  where  there  is,  yet  all 
that  portion  of  the  happiness  of  civil  life,  which  is  produced 
by  money  circulating  in  a  country,  would  be  lost.'  BOS- 
WELL.  '  Then,  Sir,  would  it  be  for  the  advantage  of  a  coun- 
try that  all  its  lands  were  sold  at  once?'  JOHNSON.  '  So  far, 
Sir,  as  money  produces  good,  it  would  be  an  advantage;  for, 
then  that  country  would  have  as  much  money  circulating 
in  it  as  it  is  worth.  But  to  be  sure  this  would  be  counter- 
balanced by  disadvantages  attending  a  total  change  of  pro- 
prietors.' 

I  expressed  my  opinion  that  the  power  of  entailing  should 
be  limited  thus:  'That  there  should  be  one  third,  or  perhaps 
one  half  of  the  land  of  a  country  kept  free  for  commerce ; 
that  the  proportion  allowed  to  be  entailed,  should  be  par- 
celled out  so  that  no  family  could  entail  above  a  certain 
quantity.  Let  a  family  according  to  the  abilities  of  its  rep- 
resentatives, be  richer  or  poorer  in  different  generations, 
or  always  rich  if  its  representatives  be  always  wise :  but 
let  its  absolute  permanency  be  moderate.  In  this  way  we 
should  be  certain  of  there  being  always  a  number  of  estab- 
lished roots ;  and  as  in  the  course  of  nature,  there  is  in 
every  age  an  extinction  of  some  families,  there  would  be 
continual  openings  for  men  ambitious  of  perpetuity,  to 
plant  a  stock  in  the  entail  ground'.'     JOHNSON.  '  Why,  Sir, 


'  See  Boswcll's  Hebrides,  Aug.  24. 

*  The  privilege  of  perpetuating  in  a  family  an  estate  and  arms  inde- 
feasibly  from  generation  to  generation,  is  enjoyed  by  none  of  his  Maj- 

mankind 


492  SmitJis  Wealth  OF  Nations.       [a.d.  1776. 

mankind  will  be  better  able  to  regulate  the  system  of  en- 
tails, when  the  evil  of  too  much  land  being  locked  up  by 
them  is  felt,  than  we  can  do  at  present  when  it  is  not  felt.' 

I  mentioned  Dr.  Adam  Smith's  book  on  The  Wealth  of 
Natio>is\  which  was  just  published,  and  that  Sir  John  Pringle 
had  observed  to  me,  that  Dr.  Smith,  who  had  never  been  in 
trade,  could  not  be  expected  to  write  well  on  that  subject 
any  more  than  a  lawyer  upon  physick.  JOHNSON.  '  He  is 
mistaken,  Sir:  a  man  who  has  never  been  engaged  in  trade 
himself  may  undoubtedly  write  well  upon  trade,  and  there 
is  nothing  which  requires  more  to  be  illustrated  by  philoso- 
phy than  trade  does.  As  to  mere  wealth,  that  is  to  say, 
money,  it  is  clear  that  orpe  nation  or  one  individual  cannot 
increase  its  store  but  by  making  another  poorer :  but  trade 
procures  what  is  more  valuable,  the  reciprocation  of  the 
peculiar  advantages  of  different  countries.  A  merchant 
seldom  thinks  but  of  his  own  particular  trade.  To  write  a 
good  book  upon  it,  a  man  must  have  extensive  views.  It 
is  not  necessary  to  have  practised,  to  write  well  upon  a  sub- 
ject.' I  mentioned  law  as  a  subject  on  which  no  man  could 
write  well  without  practice.  Johnson.  '  Why,  Sir,  in  Eng- 
land, where  so  much  money  is  to  be  got  by  the  practice  of 
the  law,  most  of  our  writers  upon  it  have  been  in  practice ; 
though  Blackstone  had  not  been  much  in  practice  when  he 
published  his  Commentaries.     But  upon  the  Continent,  the 

esty's  subjects  except  in  Scotland,  where  the  legal  fiction  oi  fine  0.^6. 
recovery  is  unknown.  It  is  a  privilege  so  proud,  that  I  should  think 
it  would  be  proper  to  have  the  exercise  of  it  dependent  on  the  royal 
prerogative.  It  seems  absurd  to  permit  the  power  of  perpetuating 
their  representation,  to  men,  who  having  had  no  eminent  merit,  have 
truly  no  name.  The  King,  as  the  impartial  father  of  his  people,  would 
never  refuse  to  grant  the  privilege  to  those  who  deserved  it.     Bos- 

WELL. 

'  Boswell  wrote  to  Temple  about  six  weeks  later : — '  Murphy  says 
he  has  read  thirty  pages  of  Smith's  Wealth,  but  says  he  shall  read  no 
more ;  Smith,  too,  is  now  of  our  Club.  It  has  lost  its  select  merit.' 
Letters  of  Boswell,  p.  233.  Johnson  can  scarcely  have  read  Smith ;  if 
he  did,  it  made  no  impression  on  him.  His  ignorance  on  many  points 
as  to  what  constitutes  the  wealth  of  a  nation  remained  as  deep  as  ever. 

sreat 


Aetat.  67.]  The  Scotcli  Militia  Bill.  493 

great  writers  on  law  have  not  all  been  in  practice  :  Grotius, 
indeed,  was  ;  but  PulYendorf  was  not,  Burlamaqui  was  not.' 

When  we  had  talked  of  the  great  consequence  which  a 
man  acquired  by  being  employed  in  his  profession,  I  sug- 
gested a  doubt  of  the  justice  of  the  general  opinion,  that  it 
is  improper  in  a  lawyer  to  solicit  employment ;  for  why, 
I  urged,  should  it  not  be  equally  allowable  to  solicit  that 
as  the  means  of  consequence,  as  it  is  to  solicit  votes  to  be 
elected  a  member  of  Parliament  ?  Mr.  Strahan  had  told 
me  that  a  countryman  of  his  and  mine',  who  had  risen  to 
eminence  in  the  law,  had,  when  first  making  his  way,  solic- 
ited him  to  get  him  employed  in  city  causes.  JOHNSON. 
'  Sir,  it  is  wrong  to  stir  up  law-suits ;  but  when  once  it  is 
certain  that  a  law-suit  is  to  go  on,  there  is  nothing  wrong 
in  a  lawyer's  endeavouring  that  he  shall  have  the  benefit, 
rather  than  another.'  BOSWELL.  '  You  would  not  solicit 
employment.  Sir,  if  you  were  a  lawyer.'  Johnson.  '  No, 
Sir,  but  not  because  I  should  think  it  wrong,  but  because 
I  should  disdain  it.'  This  was  a  good  distinction,  which 
will  be  felt  by  men  of  just  pride.  He  proceeded :  *  How- 
ever, I  would  not  have  a  lawyer  to  be  wanting  to  himself 
in  using  fair  means.  I  would  have  him  to  inject  a  little 
hint  now  and  then,  to  prevent  his  being  overlooked.' 

Lord  Mountstuart's  bill  for  a  Scotch  Militia^  in  support- 
ing which  his   Lordship  had  made  an  able  speech   in  the 

'  Mr.  Wedderburne.     Croker. 

*  A  similar  bill  had  been  thrown  out  sixteen  years  earlier  by  194  to 
84.  '  A  Bill  for  a  Militia  in  Scotland  was  not  successful ;  nor  could 
the  disaffected  there  obtain  this  mode  of  having  their  arms  restored. 
Pitt  had  acquiesced  ;  but  the  young  Whigs  attacked  it  with  all  their 
force.'  Walpole's  Reign  of  George  II,  iii.  280.  Lord  Mountstuart's 
bill  was  thrown  out  by  112  to  95,  the  Ministry  being  in  the  minority. 
The  arguments  for  and  against  it  are  stated  in  the  Ann.  Reg.  xix.  140. 
See  post,  iii.  i.  Henry  Mackenzie  (yLife  of  John  Home,  i.  26)  says: — 
'  The  Poker  Club  was  instituted  at  a  time  when  Scotland  was  refused 
a  militia,  and  thought  herself  affronted  by  the  refusal.  The  name  was 
chosen  from  a  quaint  sort  of  allusion  to  the  principles  it  was  meant  to 
excite,  as  a  club  to  stir  up  the  fire  and  spirit  of  the  country.'  See  atite, 
ii.  431,  note. 

House 


494  ^'^^  siiccession  to  estates.  [a. d.  1776. 

House  of  Commons,  was  now  a  pretty  general  topick  of 
conversation.  Johnson.  '  As  Scotland  contributes  so  little 
land-tax'  towards  the  general  support  of  the  nation,  it  ought 
not  to  have  a  militia  paid  out  of  the  general  fund,  unless 
it  should  be  thought  for  the  general  interest,  that  Scotland 
should  be  protected  from  an  invasion,  which  no  man  can 
think  will  happen  ;  for  what  enemy  would  invade  Scotland, 
where  there  is  nothing  to  be  got?  No,  Sir;  now  that  the 
Scotch  have  not  the  pay  of  English  soldiers  spent  among 
them,  as  so  many  troops  are  sent  abroad,  they  are  trying  to 
get  money  another  way,  by  having  a  militia  paid.  If  they 
are  afraid,  and  seriously  desire  to  have  an  armed  force  to 
defend  them,  they  should  pay  for  it.  Your  scheme  is  to 
retain  a  part  of  your  land-tax,  by  making  us  pay  and  clothe 
your  militia.'  BOSWELL.  '  You  should  not  talk  of  ^ve  and 
you,  Sir:  there  is  now  an  Union!  JOHNSON.  'There  must 
be  a  distinction  of  interest,  while  the  proportions  of  land-tax 
are  so  unequal.  If  Yorkshire  should  say, "  Instead  of  pay- 
ing our  land-tax,  we  will  keep  a  greater  number  of  militia," 
it  would  be  unreasonable.'  In  this  argument  my  friend  was 
certainly  in  the  wrong.  The  land-tax  is  as  unequally  pro- 
portioned between  different  parts  of  England,  as  between 
England  and  Scotland ;  nay,  it  is  considerably  unequal  in 
Scotland  itself.  But  the  land-tax  is  but  a  small  part  of  the 
numerous  branches  of  publick  revenue,  all  of  which  Scotland 
pays  precisely  as  England  does.  A  French  invasion  made 
in  Scotland  would  soon  penetrate  into  England. 

He  thus  discoursed  upon  supposed  obligation  in  settling 
estates : — '  Where  a  man  gets  the  unlimited  property  of  an 
estate,  there  is  no  obligation  upon  him  in  justice  to  leave  it 
to  one  person  rather  than  to  another.  There  is  a  motive  of 
preference  from  kindness,  and  this  kindness  is  generally  en- 
tertained for  the  nearest  relation.  If  I  owe  a  particular  man 
a  sum  of  money,  I  am  obliged  to  let  that  man  have  the  next 

'  '  Scotland  paid  only  one  fortieth  to  the  land-tax,  the  very  specific 
tax  out  of  which  all  the  expenses  of  a  militia  were  to  be  drawn.'  Ann, 
Reg.  xix.  141. 

money 


Aetat.  67.]  Spuvious  JOHNSONIANA.  495 

money  I  get,  and  cannot  in  justice  let  another  have  it :  but 
if  I  owe  money  to  no  man,  I  may  dispose  of  what  I  get  as  I 
please.  There  is  not  a  dcbitu7)i  jiistitice  to  a  man's  next 
heir;  there  is  only  a  dcbitiivi  caritatis.  It  is  plain,  then, 
that  I  have  morally  a  choice,  according  to  my  liking.  If  I 
have  a  brother  in  want,  he  has  a  claim  from  affection  to  my 
assistance ;  but  if  I  have  also  a  brother  in  want,  whom  I  like 
better,  he  has  a  preferable  claim.  The  right  of  an  heir  at 
law  is  only  this,  that  he  is  to  have  the  succession  to  an  es- 
tate, in  case  no  other  person  is  appointed  to  it  by  the  owner. 
His  right  is  merely  preferable  to  that  of  the  King.' 

We  got  into  a  boat  to  cross  over  to  Black-friars ;  and  as 
we  moved  along  the  Thames,  I  talked  to  him  of  a  little  vol- 
ume, which,  altogether  unknown  to  him,  was  advertised  to 
be  published  in  a  few  days,  under  the  title  of  Johnsoiiiana, 
or  Bon-Mots  of  Dr.  Johnson'.  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  it  is  a  mighty 
impudent  thing.'  BoswELL.  '  Pray,  Sir,  could  you  have  no 
redress  if  you  were  to  prosecute  a  publisher  for  bringing 
out,  under  your  name,  what  you  never  said,  and  ascribing  to 
you  dull  stupid  nonsense,  or  making  you  swear  profanely, 
as  many  ignorant  relaters  oi  yowx  bon-viots  do^?'  Johnson. 
'  No,  Sir ;  there  will  always  be  some  truth  mixed  with  the 
falsehood,  and  how  can  it  be  ascertained  how  much  is  true 
and  how  much  is  false?  Besides,  Sir,  what  damages  would 
a  jury  give  me  for  having  been  represented  as  swearing?' 
BosWELL.  '  I  think.  Sir,  you  should  at  least  disavow  such  a 
publication,  because  the  world  and  posterity  might  with 
much  plausible  foundation  say,  "  Here  is  a  volume  which 
was  publickly  advertised  and  came  out  in  Dr.  Johnson's  own 
time,  and,  by  his  silence,  was  admitted  by  him  to  be  gen- 
uine." '  Johnson.  '  I  shall  give  myself  no  trouble  about 
the  matter.' 

He   was,   perhaps,  above   suffering    from   such    spurious 


'  In  a  new  edition  of  this  book,  which  was  published  in  the  follow- 
ing year,  the  editor  states,  that  either  '  throu^^h  hurry  or  inattention 
some  obscene  jests  had  unluckily  found  a  place  in  the  first  edition.' 
Steposl,  April  28,  1778.  ^  Sec  ante,  ii.  3CS7,  note  2. 

])ul)lications; 


49^  Tr7itk  essential  to  a  story.  [a.  d.  1776, 

publications ;  but  I  could  not  help  thinking,  that  many  men 
would  be  much  injured  in  their  reputation,  by  having  ab- 
surd and  vicious  sayings  imputed  to  them  ;  and  that  redress 
ought  in  such  cases  to  be  given. 

He  said,  *  The  value  of  every  story  depends  on  its  being 
true.  A  story  is  a  picture  either  of  an  individual  or  of 
human  nature  in  general :  if  it  be  false,  it  is  a  picture  of 
nothing.  For  instance :  suppose  a  man  should  tell  that 
Johnson,  before  setting  out  for  Italy,  as  he  had  to  cross 
the  Alps,  sat  down  to  make  himself  wings.  This  many 
people  would  believe ;  but  it  would  be  a  picture  of  noth- 
ing. *-5<-***** '  (naming  a  worthy  friend  of  ours,)  used  to 
think  a  story,  a  story,  till  I  shewed  him  that  truth  was 
essential  to  it\'  I  observed,  that  Foote  entertained  us 
with  stories  which  were  not  true ;  but  that,  indeed,  it  was 
properly  not  as  narratives  that  Foote's  stories  pleased  us, 
but  as  collections  of  ludicrous  images.  JOHNSON.  '  Foote 
is  quite  impartial,  for  he  tells  lies  of  every  body.' 

The  importance  of  strict  and  scrupulous  veracity  cannot 

'  The  number  of  the  asterisks,  taken  with  the  term  wortliy  friend, 
renders  it  almost  certain  that  Langton  was  meant.  The  story  might, 
however,  have  been  told  of  Reynolds,  for  he  wrote  of  Johnson : — 
'  Truth,  whether  in  great  or  little  matters,  he  held  sacred.  From  the 
violation  of  truth,  he  said,  in  great  things  your  character  or  your  in- 
terest was  affected  ;  in  lesser  things,  your  pleasure  is  equally  destroyed. 
I  remember,  on  his  relating  some  incident,  I  added  something  to  his 
relation  which  I  supposed  might  likewise  have  happened :  "  It  would 
have  been  a  better  story,"  says  he,  "  if  it  had  been  so ;  but  it  was  not." ' 
Taylor's  Reynolds,  ii.  457.  Mrs.  Piozzi  records  {Anec.  p.  116): — '"A 
story,"  says  Johnson,  "is  a  specimen  of  human  manners,  and  derives 
its  sole  value  from  its  truth.  When  Foote  has  told  me  something,  1 
dismiss  it  from  my  mind  like  a  passing  shadow;  when  Reynolds  tells 
me  something,  I  consider  myself  as  possessed  of  an  idea  the  more." ' 

^  Boswell  felt  this  when,  more  than  eight  years  earlier,  he  wrote  : — 
'  As  I  have  related  Paoli's  remarkable  sayings,  I  declare  upon  honour 
that  I  have  neither  added  nor  diminished ;  nay,  so  scrupulous  have  I 
been,  that  I  would  not  make  the  smallest  variation,  even  when  my 
friends  thought  it  would  be  an  improvement.  I  know  with  how  much 
pleasure  we  read  what  is  perfectly  authentick.'  Boswell 's  Corsica,  ed. 
1879,  p.  126.     See.  post,  iii.  237. 

be 


Aetat.  67.]         Joliiisons  scrupulous  veracity.  497 

be  too  often  inculcated.  Johnson  was  known  to  be  so 
rigidly  attentive  to  it,  that  even  in  his  common  conversa- 
tion the  slightest  circumstance  was  mentioned  with  exact 
precision".  The  knowledge  of  his  having  such  a  principle 
and  habit  made  his  friends  have  a  perfect  reliance  on  the 
truth  of  every  thing  that  he  told,  however  it  might  have 
been  doubted  if  told  by  many  others.  As  an  instance  of 
this,  I  may  mention  an  odd  incident  which  he  related  as 
having  happened  to  him  one  night  in  Fleet  -  street.  '  A 
gentlewoman,  (said  he,)  begged  I  would  give  her  my  arm 
to  assist  her  in  crossing  the  street,  which  I  accordingly  did  ; 
upon  which  she  offered  me  a  shilling,  supposing  me  to  be 
the  watchman.  I  perceived  that  she  was  somewhat  in  liq- 
uor.' This,  if  told  by  most  people,  would  have  been  thought 
an  invention  ;  when  told  by  Johnson,  it  was  believed  by 
his  friends  as  much  as  if  they  had  seen  what  passed. 

We  landed  at  the  Temple-stairs,  where  we  parted. 

I  found  him  in  the  evening  in  Mrs.  Williams's  room.  We 
talked  of  religious  orders.  He  said, '  It  is  as  unreasonable 
for  a  man  to  go  into  a  Carthusian  convent  for  fear  of  be- 
ing immoral,  as  for  a  man  to  cut  off  his  hand  for  fear  he 
should  steal.  There  is,  indeed,  great  resolution  in  the  im- 
mediate act  of  dismembering  himself ;  but  when  that  is 
once  done,  he  has  no  longer  any  merit :  for  though  it  is  out 
of  his  power  to  steal,  yet  he  may  all  his  life  be  a  thief  in 
his  heart.     So  when  a  man  has  once  become  a  Carthusian, 

'  In  his  Life  of  Browne  (  Works,  vi.  47S)  he  says  of  '  innocent  frauds ' : 
— '  But  no  fraud  is  innocent ;  for  the  confidence  which  makes  the  hap- 
piness of  society  is  in  some  degree  diminished  by  every  man  whose 
practice  is  at  variance  with  his  words.'  '  Mr.  Tyers,'  writes  Murphy 
{Life,  p.  146),  'observed  that  Dr.  Johnson  always  talked  as  if  he  was 
talking  upon  oath.'  Compared  with  Johnson's  strictness,  Rousseau's 
laxity  is  striking.  After  describing  '  ces  gens  qu'on  appellc  vrais  dans 
le  monde,'  he  continues: — '  L'homme  que  j'appelle  vrai  fait  tout  le 
contrairc.  En  choses  parfaitcment  indifferentes  la  verite  qu'alors 
I'autre  rcspecte  si  fort  le  touche  fort  peu,  et  il  ne  se  fera  guere  de 
scrupule  d'amuser  une  compagnie  par  des  faits  controuves,  dont  il  ne 
resulte  aucun  jugement  injuste  ni  pour  ni  contre  qui  que  cc  soit  vi- 
vant  ou  mort.'     Les  Reveries :  LV"'^  Promenade. 

II. — 32  he 


498  Religious  austerities.  [a.d.  1776. 

he  is  obliged  to  continue  so,  whether  he  chooses  it  or  not. 
Their  silence,  too,  is  absurd.  We  read  in  the  Gospel  of 
the  apostles  being  sent  to  preach,  but  not  to  hold  their 
tongues.  All  severity  that  does  not  tend  to  increase  good, 
or  prevent  evil,  is  idle.  I  said  to  the  Lady  Abbess'  of  a 
convent,  "  Madam,  you  are  here,  not  for  the  love  of  virtue, 
but  the  fear  of  vice."  She  said,  "She  should  remember  this 
as  long  as  she  lived."  '  I  thought  it  hard  to  give  her  this 
view  of  her  situation,  when  she  could  not  help  it ;  and,  in- 
deed, I  wondered  at  the  whole  of  what  he  now  said ;  be- 
cause, both  in  his  Rambler"^  and  Idler'',  he  treats  religious 
austerities  with  much  solemnity  of  respect*. 

Finding  him  still  persevering  in  his  abstinence  from  wine, 
I  ventured  to  speak  to  him  of  it. — JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  I  have 
no  objection  to  a  man's  drinking  wine,  if  he  can  do  it 
in  moderation.  I  found  myself  apt  to  go  to  excess  in  it, 
and  therefore,  after  having  been  for  some  time  without  it, 
on  account  of  illness,  I  thought  it  better  not  to  return  to 
it  ^  Every  man  is  to  judge  for  himself,  according  to  the 
effects  which  he  experiences.  One  of  the  fathers  tells  us, 
he  found  fasting  made  him  so  peevish"  that  he  did  not 
practise  it.' 

Though  he  often  enlarged  upon  the  evil  of  intoxication'. 


'  No  doubt  Mrs.  Fermor  {ante,  ii.  450). 

="  No.  no.  '  No.  52. 

*  But  see  ante,  i.  423,  and  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  19. 
^  See  ante,  ii.  9,  and  post,  April  7,  1778. 

*  Three  weeks  later,  at  his  usual  fast  before  Easter,  Johnson  record- 
ed : — '  I  felt  myself  very  much  disordered  by  emptiness,  and  called  for 
tea  with  peevish  and  impatient  eagerness.'     Pr.  and  Med.  p.  147. 

'  Of  the  use  of  spirituous  liquors,  he  wrote  ( Works,  vi.  26)  : — '  The 
mischiefs  arising  on  every  side  from  this  compendious  mode  of  drunk- 
enness are  enormous  and  insupportable,  equally  to  be  found  among 
the  great  and  the  mean;  filling  palaces  with  disquiet  and  distraction, 
harder  to  be  borne  as  it  cannot  be  mentioned,  and  overwhelming  mul- 
titudes with  incurable  diseases  and  unpitied  poverty.'  Yet  he  found 
an  excuse  for  drunkenness  which  few  men  but  he  could  have  found. 
Stockdale  {Memoirs,  ii.  189)  says  that  he  heard  Mrs.  Williams  'wonder 
what  pleasure  men  can  take  in  making  beasts  of  themselves.    "  I  won- 

he 


Aetat.  G7.]       Pi'actical  advice  tipon  drinking.  499 

he  was  by  no  means  harsh  and  unforgiving  to  those  who 
indulged  in  occasional  excess  in  wine.  One  of  his  friends', 
I  well  remember,  came  to  sup  at  a  tavern  with  him  and 
some  other  gentlemen,  and  too  plainly  discovered  that  he 
had  drunk  too  much  at  dinner.  When  one  who  loved  mis- 
chief, thinking  to  produce  a  severe  censure,  asked  Johnson, 
a  few  days  afterwards,  *  Well,  Sir,  what  did  your  friend  say 
to  you,  as  an  apology  for  being  in  such  a  situation  ?'  John- 
son answered,  *  Sir,  he  said  all  that  a  man  should  say :  he 
said  he  was  sorry  for  it.' 

I  heard  him  once  give  a  very  judicious  practical  advice 
upon  this  subject :  '  A  man,  who  has  been  drinking  wine  at 
all  freely,  should  never  go  into  a  new  company.  With  those 
who  have  partaken  of  wine  v/ith   him,  he  may  be  prett}' 

der,  Madam,"  replied  Johnson,  "  that  you  have  not  penetration  enough 
to  see  the  strong  inducement  to  this  excess  ;  for  he  who  makes  a  beast 
of  himself  gets  rid  of  the  pain  of  being  a  man."  ' 

'  Very  likely  Boswell.  See  post,  under  May  8,  1781,  for  a  like  in- 
stance. In  1775,  under  a  yew  tree,  he  promised  Temple  to  be  sober. 
On  Aug.  12,  1775,  he  wrote: — 'My  promise  under  the  solemn  yew  I 
have  observ'ed  wonderfully,  having  never  infringed  it  till,  the  other 
day,  a  very  jovial  company  of  us  dined  at  a  tavern,  and  I  unwarily 
exceeded  my  bottle  of  old  Hock ;  and  having  once  broke  over  the 
pale,  I  run  wild,  but  I  did  not  get  drunk.  I  was,  however,  intoxicated, 
and  very  ill  next  day.*  Letters  of  BoswcU,  p.  209.  During  his  present 
visit  to  London  he  wrote : — '  My  promise  under  the  solemn  yew  was 
not  religiously  kept,  because  a  little  wine  hurried  me  on  too  much. 
The  General  [Paoli]  has  taken  my  word  of  honour  that  I  shall  not 
taste  fermented  liquor  for  a  year,  that  I  may  recover  sobriety.  I  have 
kept  this  promise  now  about  three  weeks.  I  was  really  growing  a 
drunkard.'  lb.  p.  233.  In  1778  he  was  for  a  short  time  a  water  drinker. 
Sec  post,  April  28,  1778.  His  intemperance  grew  upon  him,  and  at  last 
carried  him  off.  On  Dec.  4,  1790,  he  wrote  to  Malone  : — 'Courtenay 
took  my  word  and  honour  that  till  March  i  my  allowance  of  wine  per 
diem  should  not  exceed  four  good  glasses  at  dinner,  and  a  pint  after 
it,  and  this  I  have  kept,  though  I  have  dined  with  Jack  Wilkes,'  &c. 
On  March  8,  1 791,  he  wrote  : — '  Your  friendly  admonition  as  to  excess 
in  wine  has  been  often  too  applicable.  As  I  am  now  free  from  my 
restriction  to  Courtenay,  I  shall  be  much  upon  my  guard ;  for,  to  tell 
the  truth,  I  did  go  too  deep  the  day  before  yesterday.'  Croker's  Bos- 
well,  pp.  828,  829. 

well 


coo  Genius  and  education.  [a.d.  177G. 

well  in  unison  ;  but  he  will  probably  be  offensive,  or  appear 
ridiculous,  to  other  people.' 

He  allowed  very  great  influence  to  education.  '  I  do  not 
deny,  Sir,  but  there  is  some  original  difference  in  minds ;  but 
it  is  nothing  in  comparison  of  what  is  formed  by  education. 
We  may  instance  the  science  of  munbers,  which  all  minds 
are  equally  capable  of  attaining';  yet  we  find  a  prodigious 
difference  in  the  powers  of  different  men,  in  that  respect, 
after  they  are  grown  up,  because  their  minds  have  been  more 
or  less  exercised  in  it :  and  I  think  the  same  cause  will  ex- 
plain the  difference  of  excellence  in  other  things,  gradations 
admitting  always  some  difference  in  the  first  principlcs\' 

>  '  Mathematics  are  perhaps  too  much  studied  at  our  universities. 
This  seems  a  science  to  which  the  meanest  intellects  are  equal.  I  for- 
get who  it  is  that  says,  "  All  men  might  understand  mathematics  if 
they  would."  '     Goldsmith's  Present  State  of  Polite  Learninif,  ch.  xiii. 

^  '  No,  Sir,'  he  once  said, '  people  are  not  born  with  a  particular  gen- 
ius for  particular  employments  or  studies,  for  it  would  be  like  saying 
that  a  man  could  see  a  great  way  east,  but  could  not  west.  It  is  good 
sense  applied  with  diligence  to  what  was  at  first  a  mere  accident,  and 
which  by  great  application  grew  to  be  called  by  the  generality  of  man- 
kind a  particular  genius.'  Miss  Reynolds's  Recollections.  CrOker's 
Boswell,  p.  833  :— '  Perhaps  this  is  Miss  Reynolds's  recollection  of  the 
following,  in  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  15.  1773  •-  JOHNSON.  "I  could 
as  easily  apply  to  law  as  to  tragick  poetry."  Boswell.  "  Yet,  Sir,  you 
did  apply  to  tragick  poetry,  not  to  law."  JOHNSON.  "  Because,  Sir,  I 
had  not  money  to  study  law.  Sir,  the  man  who  has  vigour  may  walk 
to  the  east  just  as  well  as  to  the  west,  if  he  happens  to  turn  his  head 
that  way."  '  '  The  true  genius,'  he  wrote  (  Works,  vii.  i),  '  is  a  mind  of 
large  general  powers,  accidentally  determined  to  some  particular  di- 
rection.' Reynolds  held  the  same  doctrine,  having  got  it  no  doubt 
from  Johnson.  He  held  '  that  the  superiority  attainable  in  any  pur- 
suit whatever  does  not  originate  in  an  innate  propensity  of  the  mind 
to  that  pursuit  in  particular,  but  depends  on  the  general  strength  of 
the  intellect,  and  on  the  intense  and  constant  application  of  that 
strength  to  a  specific  purpose.  He  regarded  ambition  as  the  cause  of 
eminence,  but  accident  as  pointing  out  the  means!  Northcote's  Reyn- 
olds, i.  1 1.  '  Porson  insisted  that  all  men  are  bom  with  abilities  near- 
ly equal.  "  Any  one,"  he  would  say,  "  might  become  quite  as  good  a 
critic  as  I  am,  if  he  would  only  take  the  trouble  to  make  himself  so. 
I  have  made  myself  what  I  am  by  intense  labour." '     Rogers's  Tablc- 

This 


Aetat.  G7.]  Sca-life.  501 

This  is  a  difficult  subject ;  but  it  is  best  to  hope  that  dili- 
gence may  do  a  great  deal.  We  are  sure  of  what  it  can  do, 
in  increasing  our  mechanical  force  and  dexterity. 

I  again  visited  him  on  Monday".  He  took  occasion  to  en- 
large, as  he  often  did,  upon  the  wretchedness  of  a  sea-life'. 
'  A  ship  is  worse  than  a  gaol.  There  is,  in  a  gaol,  better 
air,  better  company,  better  conveniency  of  every  kind  ;  and 
a  ship  has  the  additional  disadvantage  of  being  in  danger. 
When  men  come  to  like  a  sea-life,  they  are  not  fit  to  live 
on  land\' — '  Then,  (said  I,)  it  would  be  cruel  in  a  father  to 
breed  his  son  to  the  sea.'  JOHXSOX.  '  It  would  be  cruel  in 
a  father  who  thinks  as  I  do.  Men  go  to  sea,  before  they  ' 
know  the  unhappiness  of  that  way  of  life ;  and  when  they 
have  com.e  to  know  it,  they  cannot  escape  from  it,  because 
it  is  then  too  late  to  choose  another  profession  ;  as  indeed  is 
generally  the  case  with  men,  when  they  have  once  engaged 
in  any  particular  way  of  life.' 

On  Tuesday,  March  19,  which  was  fixed  for  our  proposed 
jaunt,  -we  met  in  the  morning  at  the  Somerset  coffee-house 

Talk,  p.  305.  Hume  maintained  the  opposite.  '  This  forenoon,'  wrote 
Boswell  on  June  ig,  1775, '  Mr.  Hume  came  in.  He  did  not  say  much. 
I  only  remember  his  remark,  that  characters  depend  more  on  original 
formation  than  on  the  way  we  are  educated  ;  "  for,"  said  he,  "  princes 
are  educated  uniformly,  and  yet  how  different  are  they!  how  different 
was  James  the  Second  from  Charles  the  Second!"'  Letters  of  Bos- 
"well,  p.  205.  Boswell  recorded,  two  years  earlier  {Hebrides,  Sept.  16) : 
— '  Dr.  Johnson  denied  that  any  child  was  better  than  another,  but  by 
difference  of  instruction  ;  though,  in  consequence  of  greater  attention 
being  paid  to  instruction  by  one  child  than  another,  and  of  a  variety 
of  imperceptible  causes,  such  as  instruction  being  counteracted  by 
servants,  a  notion  was  conceived  that,  of  two  children  equally  well 
educated,  one  was  naturally  much  worse  than  another.' 

'  See  ante,  i.  403. 

'  The  grossness  of  naval  men  is  shewn  in  Captain  Mirvan,  in  Miss 
Burney's  Evelina.  In  her  Diary,  i.  358,  she  records  : — '  The  more  I  see 
of  sea-captains  the  less  reason  I  have  to  be  ashamed  of  Captain  Mir- 
van, for  they  have  all  so  irresistible  a  propensity  to  wanton  mischief 
— to  roasting  beaus  and  detesting  old  women,  that  I  quite  rejoice  I 
shewed  the  book  to  no  one  ere  printed,  lest  I  should  have  been  pre- 
vailed upon  to  soften  his  character.' 

in 


502  A  trip  to  Oxford.  [a.d.  177G. 

in  the  Strand,  where  we  were  taken  up  by  the  Oxford  coach. 
He  was  accompanied  by  Mr.  Gwyn',  the  architect;  and  a 
gentleman  of  Merton  College,  whom  we  did  not  know,  had 
the  fourth  seat.  We  soon  got  into  conversation  ;  for  it  was 
very  remarkable  of  Johnson,  that  the  presence  of  a  stranger 
had  no  restraint  upon  his  talk.  I  observed  that  Garrick, 
who  was  about  to  quit  the  stage,  would  soon  have  an  easier 
life.  Johnson.  '  I  doubt  that,  Sir.'  BOSWELL.  '  Why,  Sir, 
he  will  be  Atlas  with  the  burthen  off  his  back.'  JOHNSON. 
'  But  I  know  not,  Sir,  if  he  will  be  so  steady  without  his 
load.  However,  he  should  never  play  any  more,  but  be  en- 
tirely the  gentleman,  and  not  partly  the  player:  he  should 
no  longer  subject  himself  to  be  hissed  by  a  mob,  or  to  be 
insolently  treated  by  performers,  whom  he  used  to  rule  with 
a  high  hand,  and  who  would  gladly  retaliate,'  BosWELL.  '  I 
think  he  should  play  once  a  year  for  the. benefit  of  decayed 
actors,  as  it  has  been  said  he  means  to  do.'  JOHNSON. 
'  Alas,  Sir !  he  will  soon  be  a  decayed  actor  himself.' 

Johnson  expressed  his  disapprobation  of  ornamental  ar- 
chitecture, such  as  magnificent  columns  supporting  a  portico, 
or  expensive  pilasters  supporting  merely  their  own  capitals, 
'  because  it  consumes  labour  disproportionate  to  its  utility.' 
For  the  same  reason  he  satyrised  statuary.  '  Painting,  (said 
he,)  consumes  labour  not  disproportionate  to  its  effect ;  but 
a  fellow  will  hack  half  a  year  at  a  block  of  marble  to  make 
something  in  stone  that  hardly  resembles  a  man.  The  value 
of  statuary  is  owing  to  its  difficulty.  You  would  not  value 
the  finest  head  cut  upon  a  carrot'.'     Here  he  seemed  to  me 


'  Baretti,  in  a  MS.  note  in  Pio2zi  Letters,  i.  349,  describes  Gwyn  as 
'  the  Welsh  architect  that  built  the  bridge  at  Oxford."  He  built  Mag- 
dalen Bridge. 

^  'Whence,'  asks  Goldsmith, 'has  proceeded  the  vain  magnificence 
of  expensive  architecture  in  our  colleges?  Is  it  that  men  study  to 
more  advantage  in  a  palace  than  in  a  cell  ?  One  single  performance 
of  taste  or  genius  confers  more  real  honour  on  its  parent  university 
than  all  the  labours  of  the  chisel.'  Present  State  of  Polite  Learning, 
ch.  xiii.  Newton  used  to  say  of  his  friend,  the  Earl  of  Pembroke, '  that 
he  was  a  lover  of  stone  dolls.'     Brewster's  Newton,  ed.  i860,  ii.  334. 

to 


Aetat.  67.]  Mr.  Gwyu  the  architect.  503 

to  be  strangely  deficient  in  taste  ;  for  surely  statuary  is  a 
noble  art  of  imitation,  and  preserves  a  wonderful  expression 
of  the  varieties  of  the  human  frame ;  and  although  it  must 
be  allowed  that  the  circumstances  of  difficulty  enhance  the 
value  of  a  marble  head,  we  should  consider,  that  if  it  re- 
quires a  long  time  in  the  performance,  it  has  a  proportion- 
ate value  in  durability. 

Gwyn  was  a  fine  lively  rattling  fellow.  Dr.  Johnson  kept 
him  in  subjection,  but  with  a  kindly  authority.  The  spirit 
of  the  artist,  however,  rose  against  what  he  thought  a  Goth- 
ick  attack,  and  he  made  a  brisk  defence.  '  What,  Sir,  will 
you  allow  no  value  to  beauty  in  architecture  or  in  statuary? 
Why  should  we  allow  it  then  in  writing?  Why  do  you  take 
the  trouble  to  give  us  so  many  fine  allusions,  and  bright  im- 
ages, and  elegant  phrases?  You  might  convey  all  your  in- 
struction without  these  ornaments.'  Johnson  smiled  with 
complacency  ;  but  said, '  WHiy,  Sir,  all  these  ornaments  are 
useful,  because  they  obtain  an  easier  reception  for  truth  ; 
but  a  building  is  not  at  all  more  convenient  for  being  deco- 
rated with  superfluous  carved  work.' 

Gwyn  at  last  was  lucky  enough  to  make  one  reply  to  Dr. 
Johnson,  which  he  allowed  to  be  excellent.  Johnson  cen- 
sured him  for  taking  down  a  church  which  might  have  stood 
many  years,  and  building  a  new  one  at  a  different  place,  for 
no  other  reason  but  that  there  might  be  a  direct  road  to 
a  new  bridge  ;  and  his  expression  was,  '  You  are  taking  a 
church  out  of  the  way,  that  the  people  may  go  in  a  straight 
line  to  the  bridge.' — '  No,  Sir,  (said  Gwyn,)  I  am  putting  the 
church  i)i  the  way,  that  the  people  may  not  go  out  of  the 
zuay.'  Johnson,  (with  a  hearty  loud  laugh  of  approbation.) 
'Speak  no  more.     Rest  your  colloquial  fame  upon  this.' 

Upon  our  arrival  at  Oxford,  Dr.  Johnson  and  I  went  di- 
rectly to  University  College,  but  were  disappointed  on  find- 
ing that  one  of  the  fellows,  his  friend  Mr.  Scott',  who  ac- 
companied him  from  Newcastle  to  Edinburgh,  was  gone  to 
the  country.      We   put    up   at    the  Angel   inn,  and   passed 

'  Afterwards  Lord  Stowell.   See  the  beginning  of  Boswell's  Hebrides. 

the 


504  The  management  of  the  mind.        [a.d.  177G. 

the  evening  by  ourselves  in  easy  and  familiar  conversation. 
Talking  of  constitutional  melancholy,  he  observed, 'A  man 
so  afflicted.  Sir,  must  divert  distressing  thoughts,  and  not 
combat  with  them.'  Bos^yELL.  '  May  not  he  think  them 
down,  Sir?'  Johnson.  '  No,  Sir.  To  attempt  to  think  than 
doivn  is  madness.  He  should  have  a  lamp  constantly  burn- 
ing in  his  bed-chamber  during  the  night,  and  if  wakefully 
disturbed,  take  a  book,  and  read,  and  compose  himself  to 
rest.  To  have  the  management  of  the  mind  is  a  great  art, 
and  it  may  be  attained  in  a  considerable  degree  by  expe- 
rience and  habitual  exercise.'  BOSWELL.  '  Should  not  he 
provide  amusements  for  himself?  Would  it  not,  for  in- 
stance, be  right  for  him  to  take  a  course  of  chymistry?' 
Johnson.  *  Let  him  take  a  course  of  chymistry,  or  a  course 
of  rope-dancing,  or  a  course  of  any  thing  to  which  he  is 
inclined  at  the  time.  Let  him  contrive  to  have  as  many 
retreats  for  his  mind  as  he  can,  as  many  things  to  which  it 
can  fly  from  itself.  Burton's  Anatomy  of  Melancholy''  is  a 
valuable  work.  It  is,  perhaps,  overloaded  with  quotation. 
But  there  is  great  spirit  and  great  power  in  what  Burton 
says,  when  he  writes  from  his  own  mind.' 

Next  morning  we  visited  Dr.  Wetherell,  Master  of  Uni- 
versity College,  with  whom  Dr.  Johnson  conferred  on  the 
most  advantageous  mode  of  disposing  of  the  books  printed 
at  the  Clarendon  press,  on  which  subject  his  letter  has  been 
inserted  in  a  former  page\  I  often  had  occasion  to  remark, 
Johnson  loved  business",  loved  to  have  his  wisdom  actually 
operate  on  real  life.  Dr.  Wetherell  and  I  talked  of  him 
without  reserve  in  his  own  presence.  Wetherell.  '  I 
would  have  given  him  a  hundred  guineas  if  he  would  have 
written  a  preface  to  his  Political  Tracts^,  by  way  of  a  Dis- 
course on  the  British  Constitution.'  BoswELL.  '  Dr.  John- 
son, though  in  his  writings,  and  upon  all  occasions  a  great 
friend   to   the   constitution   both    in   church   and   state,  has 

'  See  atite,  i.  517.  -  See  ante,  ii.  138,  and /i?^/,  Oct.  27,  1779. 

'  See  aitie,  ii.  486.  •    ^  See  post,  under  April  4,  1781. 

'  See  ante,  ii.  360. 

never 


Aetat.  67.]       David  Hume  and  Dr.  Adams.  505 

never  written  expressly  in  support  of  either.  There  is  re- 
ally a  claim  upon  him  for  both.  I  am  sure  he  could  give  a 
volume  of  no  great  bulk  upon  each,  which  would  comprise 
all  the  substance,  and  with  his  spirit  would  effectually  main- 
tain them.  He  should  erect  a  fort  on  the  confines  of  each.' 
I  could  perceive  that  he  was  displeased  with  this  dialogue. 
He  burst  out, '  Why  should  /  be  always  writing'  ?'  I  hoped 
he  was  conscious  that  the  debt  was  just,  and  meant  to  dis- 
charge it,  though  he  disliked  being  dunned. 

We  then  went  to  Pembroke  College,  and  waited  on  his 
old  friend  Dr.  Adams,  the  master  of  it,  whom  I  found  to  be 
a  most  polite,  pleasing,  communicative  man.  Before  his 
advancement  to  the  headship  of  his  college,  I  had  intended 
to  go  and  visit  him  at  Shrewsbury,  where  he  was  rector  of 
St.  Chad's,  in  order  to  get  from  him  what  particulars  he 
could  recollect  of  Johnson's  academical  life.  He  now  oblig- 
ingly gave  me  part  of  that  authentick  information,  which, 
with  what  I  afterwards  owed  to  his  kindness,  will  be  found 
incorporated  in  its  proper  place  in  this  work. 

Dr.  Adams  had  distinguished  himself  by  an  able  answer 
to  David  Hume's  Essay  on  Miracles.  He  told  me  he  had 
once  dined  in  company  with  Hume  in  London'';  that  Hume 
shook  hands  with  him,  and  said, '  You  have  treated  me  much 
better  than  I  deserve ;'  and  that  they  exchanged  visits.  I 
took  the  liberty  to  object  to  treating  an  infidel  writer  with 
smooth  civility.  Where  there  is  a  controversy  concerning 
a  passage  in  a  classick  authour,  or  concerning  a  question  in 
antiquities,  or  any  other  subject  in  which  human  happiness 
is  not  deeply  interested,  a  man  may  treat  his  antagonist  with 
politeness  and  even  respect.      But  where   the   controversy 

'  See  a7itc,  i.  461. 

'  '  Hume  told  Cadell,  the  bookseller,  that  he  had  a  great  desire  to 
be  introduced  to  as  many  of  the  persons  who  had  written  against 
him  as  could  be  collected.  Accordingly,  Dr.  Douglas,  Dr.  Adams, 
&c.,  were  invited  by  Cadeil  to  dine  at  his  house,  in  order  to  meet 
Hume.  They  came ;  and  Dr.  Price,  who  was  of  the  party,  assured 
me  that  they  were  rdl  delighted  with  David.'  Rogers's  Table-Talk, 
p.  106. 

i."= 


5o6  Civility  to  infidel  zuriters.  [a.d.  1770. 

is  concerning  the  truth  of  reHgion,  it  is  of  such  vast  impor- 
tance to  him  who  maintains  it,  to  obtain  the  victory,  that 
the  person  of  an  opponent  ought  not  to  be  spared.  If 
a  man  firmly  beHeves  that  reHgion  is  an  invakiable  treas- 
ure ',  he  will  consider  a  writer  who  endeavours  to  deprive 
mankind  of  it  as  a  robber ;  he  will  look  upon  him  as  odious, 
though  the  infidel  might  think  himself  in  the  right.  A  rob- 
ber who  reasons  as  the  gang  do  in  The  Beggar  s  Opera,  who 
call  themselves  practical  philosophers',  and  may  have  as 
much  sincerity  as  pernicious  speculative  philosophers,  is  not 
the  less  an  object  of  just  indignation.  An  abandoned  prof- 
ligate may  think  that  it  is  not  wrong  to  debauch  my  wife ; 
but  shall  I,  therefore,  not  detest  him  ?  And  if  I  catch  him 
in  making  an  attempt,  shall  I  treat  him  with  politeness? 
No,  I  will  kick  him  down  stairs,  or  run  him  through  the 
body ;  that  is,  if  I  really  love  my  wife,  or  have  a  true  ra- 
tional notion  of  honour.  An  infidel  then  shall  not  be 
treated  handsomely  by  a  Christian,  merely  because  he  en- 
deavours to  rob  with  ingenuity.  I  do  declare,  however, 
that  I  am  exceedingly  unwilling  to  be  provoked  to  anger, 
and  could  I  be  persuaded  that  truth  would  not  suffer  from 
a  cool  moderation  in  its  defenders,  I  should  wish  to  pre- 
serve good  humour,  at  least,  in  every  controversy ;  nor,  in- 
deed, do  I  see  why  a  man  should  lose  his  temper  while 
he  does  all  he  can  to  refute  an  opponent.  I  think  ridicule 
may  be  fairly  used  against  an  infidel ;  for  instance,  if  he  be 

'  Boswell,  in  his  Corsica,  ed.  1879,  p.  204,  uses  a  strange  argument 
against  infidelity.  '  Belief  is  favourable  to  the  human  mind  were  it 
for  nothing  else  but  to  furnish  it  entertainment.  An  infidel,  I  should 
think,  must  frequently  suffer  from  ennui.'  In  his  Hebrides,  Aug.  15, 
note,  he  attacks  Adam  Smith  for  being  '  so  forgetful  of  fnnnan  com- 
fort as  to  give  any  countenance  to  that  dreary  infidelity  which  would 
"  make  us  poor  indeed."  ' 

^  'Jemmy  Twitcher.  Are  we  more  dishonest  than  the  rest  of  man- 
kind? What  we  win,  gentlemen,  is  our  own,  by  the  law  cf  arms  and 
the  right  of  conquest. 

'Crook-finger'd  Jack.  Where  shall  we  find  such  another  set  of 
practical  philosophers,  who  to  a  man  are  above  the  fear  of  death  ?' 
The  Beggar  s  Opera,  act  ii.  sc.  i. 

an 


Aetat.  G7.J  Oxford  common  rooms.  507 

an  ugly  fellow,  and  yet  absurdly  vain  of  his  person',  we 
may  contrast  his  appearance  with  Cicero's  beautiful  imao-e 
of  Virtue,  could  she  be  seen".  Johnson  coincided  with  me 
and  said, '  When  a  man  voluntarily  engages  in  an  important 
controversy,  he  is  to  do  all  he  can  to  lessen  his  antagonist, 
because  authority  from  personal  respect  has  much  weight 
with  most  people,  and  often  more  than  reasoning'.  If  my 
antagonist  writes  bad  language,  though  that  may  not  be 
essential  to  the  question,  I  will  attack  him  for  his  bad 
language.'  Adams.  'You  would  not  jostle  a  chimney- 
sweeper.' Johnson.  'Yes,  Sir,  if  it  were  necessary  to  jos- 
tle him  down.' 

Dr.  Adams  told  us,  that  in  some  of  the  Colleges  at  Ox- 
ford, the  fellows  had  excluded  the  students  from  social 
intercourse  with  them  in  the  common  room  \     JOHNSON. 

'  Boswell,  I  think,  here  aims  a  blow  at  Gibbon.  He  says  {post,  un- 
der March  19,  17S1),  that 'Johnson  had  talked  with  some  disgust  of 
Mr.  Gibbon's  ugliness.'  He  wrote  to  Temple  on  May  8,  1779: — 'Gib- 
bon is  an  ugly,  affected,  disgusting  fellow,  and  poisons  our  literary 
club  to  me.'  He  had  before  classed  him  among  'infidel  wasps  and 
venomous  insects.'  Letters  of  Boswell,  pp.  233,  242.  The  younger 
Colman  describes  Gibbon  as  dressed  '  in  a  suit  of  flowered  velvet, 
with  a  bag  and  sword.'     Random  Records,  i.  121. 

^  '  Formam  quidem  ipsam,  Marce  fill,  et  tamquam  faciem  honesti 
vides,  "quae  si  oculis  cerneretur,  mirabiles  amores "  ut  ait  Plato, 
"  excitaret  sapientiae."  '     Cicero,  De  Ojfficiis,  i.  5. 

°  Of  Beattie's  attack  on  Hume,  he  said  : — '  Treating  your  adversary 
with  respect,  is  striking  soft  in  a  battle.'     Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  15. 

^  When  Gibbon  entered  Magdalen  College  in  1752,  the  ordinary 
commoners  were  already  excluded.  '  As  a  gentleman  commoner,'  he 
writes,'  I  was  admitted  to  the  society  of  the  fellows,  and  fondly  ex- 
pected that  some  questions  of  literature  would  be  the  amusing  and 
instructiv^e  topics  of  their  discourse.  Their  conversation  stagnated 
in  a  round  of  college  business,  Tory  politics,  personal  anecdotes,  and 
private  scandal ;  their  dull  and  deep  potations  excused  the  brisk  in- 
temperance of  youth ;  and  their  constitutional  toasts  were  not  ex- 
pressive of  the  most  lively  loyalty  for  the  House  of  Hanover.'  Gib- 
bon's Misc.  Works,  i.  53.  In  Jesse's  edition  of  White's  Selbornc,  p.  il, 
it  is  stated  that '  White,  as  long  as  his  health  allowed  him,  always  at- 
tended the  annual  election  of  Fellows  at  Oriel  College,  where  the  gen- 
tlemen-commoners were  allowed  the  use  of  the  common-room  after 

'  They 


5o8  Pembroke  College  common  room.        [a.d,  1776. 

'They  are  in  the  ri<^ht,  Sir:  there  can  be  no  real  conversa- 
tion, no  fair  exertion  of  mind  amongst  them,  if  the  young 
men  are  by ;  for  a  man  who  has  a  character  does  not  choose 
to  stake  it  in  their  presence.'  BOSWELL.  *  But,  Sir,  may 
there  not  be  very  good  conversation  without  a  contest  for 
superiority?'  JOHNSON.  'No  animated  conversation,  Sir, 
for  it  cannot  be  but  one  or  other  will  come  off  supcriour. 
I  do  not  mean  that  the  victor  must  have  the  better  of  the 
argument,  for  he  may  take  the  weak  side ;  but  his  superior- 
ity of  parts  and  knowledge  will  necessarily  appear:  and  he 
to  whom  he  thus  shews  himself  superiour  is  lessened  in  the 
eyes  of  the  young  men'.  You  know  it  v/as  s^Xd/' Mallcui 
cunt  Scaligero  crrarc  quaut  cum  Clavio  rcctc  sapcrc"^.''  In  the 
same  manner  take  Bentley's  and  Jason  de  Nores'  Comments 
upon  Horace,  you  will  admire  Bentley  more  when  wrong, 
than  Jason  when  right.' 

We  walked  with  Dr.  Adams  into  the  master's  garden,  and 
into  the  common  room.  Johnson,  (after  a  reverie  of  medi- 
tation.) '  Ay  !  Here  I  used  to  play  at  draughts  with  Phil. 
Jones' and  Fludyer.    Jones  loved  beer,  and  did  not  get  very 

dinner.  This  liberty  they  seldom  availed  themselves  of,  except  on 
the  occasion  of  Mr.  White's  visits ;  for  such  was  his  happy  manner  of 
telling  a  story  that  the  room  was  always  filled  when  he  was  there.' 
He  died  in  1793. 

'  '  So  different  are  the  colours  of  life  as  we  look  forward  to  the  fut- 
ure, or  backward  to  the  past,  and  so  different  the  opinions  and  senti- 
ments which  this  contrariety  of  appearance  naturally  produces,  that 
the  conversation  of  the  old  and  young  ends  generally  with  contempt 
or  pity  on  either  side.  .  .  .  One  generation  is  always  the  scorn  and 
wonder  of  the  other ;  and  the  notions  of  the  old  and  young  are  like 
liquors  of  different  gravity  and  texture  which  never  can  unite.'  The 
Ratnbkr,  No.  69. 

"^  '  It  was  said  of  a  dispute  between  two  mathematicians, "  7)ialiui 
cum  Scaligero  errare  quani  cum  Clavio  recfe  sapcre,"  that  "  it  was  more 
eligible  to  go  wrong  with  one  than  right  with  the  other."  A  tenden- 
cy of  the  same  kind  every  mind  must  feel  at  the  perusal  of  Drj-den's 
prefaces  and  Rymer's  discourses.'     Johnson's  Works,  Vn.  303. 

^  '  There  is  evidence  of  Phil.  Jones's  love  of  beer ;  for  we  find  scrib- 
bled at  the  end  of  the  college  buttery-books, "  O  yes,  O  yes,  come 
forth,  Phil.  Jones,  and  ansv/er  to  j^our  charge  for  exceeding  the  batells." 

forward 


Aetat.  G7.]     Johnsoii  diues  at  University  College.         509 

forward  in  the  church.  Fkidycr  turned  out  a  scoundrel',  a 
Whig,  and  said  he  was  ashamed  of  having  been  bred  at  Ox- 
ford. He  had  a  living  at  Putney,  and  got  under  the  eye  of 
some  retainers  to  the  court  at  that  time,  and  so  became  a 
violent  \\'hig :  but  he  had  been  a  scoundrel  all  along  to  be 
sure.'  BOSWELL.  '  Was  he  a  scoundrel,  Sir,  in  any  other 
way  than  that  of  being  a  political  scoundrel  ?  Did  he  cheat 
at  draughts?'     JOHXSOX.  '  Sir,  we  never  played  for  money.' 

He  then  carried  me  to  visit  Dr.  Bentham,  Canon  of  Christ- 
Church,  and  Divinity  Professor,  with  whose  learned  and  live- 
ly conversation  we  were  much  pleased.  He  gave  us  an  in- 
vitation to  dinner,  which  Dr.  Johnson  told  me  was  a  high 
honour.  '  Sir,  it  is  a  great  thing  to  dine  with  the  Canons  of 
Christ-Church.'  We  could  not  accept  his  invitation,  as  we 
were  engaged  to  dine  at  University  College.  We  had  an 
excellent  dinner  there,  with  the  Master  and  Fellows,  it  be- 
ing St.  Cuthbert's  day,  which  is  kept  by  them  as  a  festi- 
val, as  he  was  a  saint  of  Durham,  with  wdiich  this  college  is 
much  connected"'. 

We  drank  tea  with  Dr.  Home",  late  President  of  Mag- 
dalen College,  and   Bishop  of  Norwich,  of  whose   abilities. 

His  excess,  perhaps,  was  in  liquor.'  Dr.  Johnson :  His  Friends,  u^c, 
p.  23. 

-  S&c post,  ill.  I,  note  2. 

*  Dr.  Fisher,  ivho  was  present,  told  Mr.  Croker  that '  he  recollected 
one  passage  of  the  conversation.  Boswell  quoted  (Jncm  Dcus  7>ult per- 
dcrc,prius  dement  at,  and  asked  where  it  was.  A  pause.  At  last  Dr. 
Chandler  said,  in  Horace.  Another  pause.  Then  Fisher  remarked  that 
he  knew  of  no  metre  in  Horace  to  which  the  words  could  be  reduced  ; 
and  Johnson  said  dictatorially,  "  The  young  man  is  right."  '  See  post, 
March  30,  1783.  For  another  of  Dr.  Fisher's  anecdotes,  see  afite,  ii. 
308,  note  I.  Mark  Pattison  recorded  in  his  Diary  in  1843  {Memoirs, 
p.  203),  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  (now  Cardinal)  Newman: — 'About 
1770,  the  worst  time  in  the  University;  a  head  of  Oriel  then,  who 
was  continually  obliged  to  be  assisted  to  bed  by  his  butler.  Gaudies, 
a  scene  of  wild  license.  At  Christ  Church  they  dined  at  three,  and 
sat  regularly  till  chapel  at  nine.'  A  gaudy  is  such  a  festival  as  the 
one  in  the  text. 

^  The  author  of  the  Commentary  on  the  Psalms.  Sec  Boswell 's  Heb- 
rides, Aug.  15,  note. 

in 


5IO  WaltoiLs  Lives.  [a.d.  1776. 

in  different  respects,  the  publick  has  had  eminent  proof^^, 
and  the  esteem  annexed  to  whose  character  was  increased 
by  knowing  him  personally.  He  had  talked  of  publish- 
ing an  edition  of  Walton's  Lives',  but  had  laid  aside  that 
design,  upon  Dr.  Johnson's  telling  him,  from  mistake,  that 
Lord  Hailes  intended  to  do  it.  I  had  wished  to  negociate 
between  Lord  Hailes  and  him,  that  one  or  other  should 
perform  so  good  a  work.  Johnson.  '  In  order  to  do  it 
well,  it  will  be  necessary  to  collect  all  the  editions  of  Wal- 
ton's Lives.  By  way  of  adapting  the  book  to  the  taste  of 
the  present  age,  they  have,  in  a  later  edition,  left  out  a 
vision  which  he  relates  Dr.  Donne  had\  but  it  should  be 
restored  ;  and  there  should  be  a  critical  catalogue  given  of 
the  works  of  the  different  persons  whose  lives  were  writ- 
ten by  Walton,  and  therefore  their  works  must  be  carefully 
read  by  the  editor.' 

We  then  went  to  Trinity  College,  where  he  introduced 
me  to  Mr.  Thomas  Warton,  with  whom  we  passed  a  part 
of  the  evening.  We  talked  of  biography. — Johnson.  '  It 
is  rarely  well  executed  ^  They  only  who  live  with  a  man 
can  write  his  life  with  any  genuine  exactness  and  discrim- 
ination ;  and  few  people  who  have  lived  with  a  man  know 
what  to  remark  about  him.  The  chaplain  of  a  late  Bishop \ 
whom  I  was  to  assist  in  writing  some  memoirs  of  his  Lord- 
ship, could  tell  me  scarcely  any  thing\' 

'  See  anh',  ii.  320,  324. 

^  '  I  have  seen,'  said  Mr.  Donne  to  Sir  R.  Drewry, '  a  dreadful  vision 
since  I  saw  you.  I  have  seen  my  dear  wife  pass  twice  by  me,  through 
this  room,  with  her  hair  hanging  about  her  shoulders,  and  a  dead 
child  in  her  arms.'  He  learnt  that  on  the  same  day,  and  about  the 
very  hour,  after  a  long  and  dangerous  labour,  she  had  been  delivered 
of  a  dead  child.     Walton's  Lift'  0/ Dr.  Dojine,  ed.  1838,  p.  25. 

'  '  Biographers  so  little  regard  the  manners  or  behaviour  of  their 
heroes,  that  more  knowledge  may  be  gained  of  a  man's  real  character 
by  a  short  conversation  with  one  of  his  servants  than  from  a  formal 
and  studied  narrative,  begun  with  his  pedigree,  and  ended  with  his 
funeral.'      T/ie  Rambler,  No.  60.     Se.e  posf,  iii.  81. 

■*  Seeposf,  iii.  128,  note  2. 

^  It  has  been  mentioned  to  me  by  an  accurate  English  friend,  that 

J  said, 


Aetat.  67.]  Robert  Dodsley.  511 

I  said,  Mr.  Robert  Dodsley's  life  should  be  written,  as  he 
had  been  so  much  connected  with  the  wits  of  his  time', 
and  by  his  literary  merit  had  raised  himself  from  the  station 
of  a  footman.  Mr.  Warton  said,  he  had  published  a  little 
volume  under  the  title  of  The  Muse  in  Livery'^.  JOHNSOX. 
'  I  doubt  whether  Dodsley's  brother'  would  thank  a  man 
who  should  write  his  life :  yet  Dodsley  himself  was  not  un- 
willing that  his  original  low  condition  should  be  recollected. 
When  Lord  Lyttelton's  Dialogues  of  the  Dead  came  out, 
one  of  which  is  between  Apicius,  an  ancient  epicure,  and 
Dartineuf,  a  modern  epicure,  Dodsley  said  to  me,  "  I  knew 
Dartincuf  well,  for  I  was  once  his  footman*."  ' 


Dr.  Johnson  could  never  have  used  the  phrase  almost  nothing,  as  not 
being  Enghsh ;  and  therefore  I  have  put  another  in  its  place.  At  the 
same  time,  I  am  not  quite  convinced  it  is  not  good  English.  For  the 
best  writers  use  the  phrase  '  Little  or  fiot/iing  ;'  i.  e.  almost  so  little  as 
to  be  nothing.  Boswell.  Boswell  might  have  left  almost  7tothing  in 
his  text.  Johnson  used  it  in  his  writings,  certainly  twice.  '  It  will 
add  almost  nothing  to  the  expense.'  Works,  v.  307.  '  I  have  read 
little,  almost  nothing.'  Pr.  and  Med.  p.  176.  Moreover,  in  a  letter 
to  Mrs.  Aston,  written  on  Nov.  5,  1779  (Croker's  Bosivell,  p.  640),  he 
says  : — '  Nothing  almost  is  purchased.'     In  King  Lear,  act  ii.  sc.  2,  we 

have : — 

— '  Nothing  almost  sees  miracles 

But  misery.' 

*  '  Pope's  fortune  did  not  sufTer  his  charity  to  be  splendid  and  con- 
spicuous ;  but  he  assisted  Dodsley  with  a  hundred  pounds,  that  he 
might  open  a  shop.'     Johnson's  Works,  \\\i.  318. 

'  A  Muse  in  Livery :  or  the  Footman's  Miscellany.  1732.  A  rhyme 
in  the  motto  on  the  title-page  shows  what  a  Cockney  muse  Dodsley's 
was.     He  writes  : — 

'  But  when  I  mount  behind  the  coach. 
And  bear  aloft  a  flaming  torch.' 
The  Preface  is  written  with  much  good  feeling. 

^  James  Dodsley,  many  years  a  bookseller  in  Pall  Mall.  He  died 
Feb.  19,  1797.  P.  Cunningham.  He  was  living,  therefore,  when  this 
anecdote  was  published. 

*  Horace  Walpole  {Letters,  iii.  135)  says  : — 'You  know  how  decent, 
humble,  inoffensive  a  creature  Dodsley  is ;  how  little  apt  to  forget 
or  disguise  his  having  been  a  footman.'  Johnson  seems  to  refer  to 
Dodsley  in  the  following  passage,  written  in  1756  (Works,  v.  358) : — 

Biography 


512  Dr.  Jo/ui  CanipOell.  [a.d.  ittg. 

Biography  led  us  to  speak  of  Df.  John  Campbell',  who 
had  written  a  considerable  part  of  the  Biograpliia  Britan- 
nica.  Johnson,  though  he  valued  him  highly,  was  of  opin- 
ion that  there  was  not  so  much  in  his  great  work,  A  Polit- 
ical Survey  of  Great  Britain,  as  the  world  had  been  taught 
to  expect^;  and  had  said  to  me,  that  he  believed  Camp- 
bell's disappointment,  on  account  of  the  bad  success  of  that 
work,  had  killed  him.  He  this  evening  observed  of  it, 'That 
work  was  his  death.'  Mr.  Warton,  not  adverting  to  his 
meaning,  answered, '  I  believe  so  ;  from  the  great  attention 
he  bestowed  on  it.'  JoiINSON.  *  Nay,  Sir,  he  died  of  want 
of  attention,  if  he  died  at  all  by  that  book.' 

We  talked  of  a  -work  much  in  vogue  at  that  time,  written 
in  a  very  mellifluous  style,  but  which,  under  pretext  of  an- 
other subject,  contained  much  artful  infidelity  \  I  said  it 
was  not  fair  to  attack  us  thus  unexpectedly ;  he  should 
have  warned  us  of  our  danger,  before  we  entered  his  gar- 
den of  flowery  eloquence,  by  advertising, '  Spring-guns  and 
men-traps  set  here\'     The  authour  had  been  an  Oxonian, 

'  The  last  century  imagined  that  a  man  composing  in  his  chariot  was 
a  new  object  of  curiosity ;  but  how  much  would  the  wonder  have 
been  increased  by  a  footman  studying  behind  it.' 

*  See  ante,  i.  483. 

*  Yet  surely  it  is  a  veiy  useful  work,  and  of  wonderful  research  and 
labour  for  one  man  to  have  executed.  Boswell.  See  Boswell's 
Hebrides,  Oct.  17,  1773. 

^  Two  days  earlier,  Hume  congratulated  Gibbon  on  the  first  vol- 
ume of  his  Decline  and  Fall: — 'I  own  that  if  I  had  not  previously 
had  the  happiness  of  your  personal  acquaintance,  such  a  performance 
from  an  Englishman  in  our  age  would  have  given  me  some  surprise. 
You  may  smile  at  this  sentiment,  but  as  it  seems  to  me  that  your 
countr}mien,  for  almost  a  whole  generation,  have  given  themselves 
up  to  barbarous  and  absurd  faction,  and  have  totally  neglected  all 
polite  letters,  I  no  longer  expected  any  valuable  production  ever  to 
come  from  them.'    J.  H.  Burton's  Hume,  ii.  484. 

*  Five  weeks  later  Boswell  used  a  different  metaphor.  '  I  think  it 
is  right  that  as  fast  as  infidel  wasps  or  venomous  insects,  whether 
creeping  or  flying,  are  hatched,  they  should  be  crushed.'  Letters  of 
Bosxvcll,  p.  232.  If  the  infidels  were  wasps  to  the  orthodox,  the  ortho- 
dox were  hornets  to  the  infidels.    Gibbon  wrote  {Misc.  Works,  i.  273) : 

and 


Aetat.  07.]  Gibdo)is  coHversimis.  513 

and  was  remembered  there  for  havinj^  *  turned  Papist.'  I 
observed,  that  as  he  had  changed  several  times — from  the 
Church  of  England  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  —  from  the 
Church  of  Rome  to  infidelity,  —  I  did  not  despair  yet  of 
seeing  him  a  methodist  preacher.  JOHNSON,  (laughing.) 
'  It  is  said,  that  his  range  has  been  more  extensive,  and 
that  he  has  once  been  Mahometan'.  However,  now  that 
he  has  published  his  infidelity,  he  will  probably  persist  in 
it.'     BOSWELL.  '  I  am  not  quite  sure  of  that.  Sir.' 

I  mentioned  Sir  Richard  Steele  having  published  his 
Christian  Hero,  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  obliging  him- 
self to  lead  a  religious  life^;  yet,  that  his  conduct  was  by 

— '  The  freedom  of  my  writings  has  indeed  provoked  an  implacable 
tribe ;  but  as  I  was  safe  from  the  stings,  I  was  soon  accustomed  to 
the  buzzing  of  the  hornets.' 

*  Macaulay  thus  examines  this  report  {Essays,  i.  360) : — '  To  what 
then,  it  has  been  asked,  could  Johnson  allude  ?  Possibly  to  some  an- 
ecdote or  some  conversation  of  which  all  trace  is  lost.  One  conject- 
ure may  be  offered,  though  with  diffidence.  Gibbon  tells  us  in  his 
memoirs  \^Misc.  Works,  i.  56]  that  at  Oxford  he  took  a  fancy  for  study- 
ing Arabic,  and  was  prevented  from  doing  so  by  the  remonstrances 
of  his  tutor.  Soon  after  this,  the  young  man  fell  in  with  Bossuet's 
controversial  writings,  and  was  speedily  converted  by  them  to  the 
Roman  Catholic  faith.  The  apostasy  of  a  gentleman  -  commoner 
would  of  course  be  for  a  time  the  chief  subject  of  conversation  in 
the  common  room  of  Magdalene.  His  whim  about  Arabic  learning 
would  naturally  be  mentioned,  and  would  give  occasion  to  some  jokes 
about  the  probability  of  his  turning  Mussulman.  If  such  jokes  were 
made,  Johnson,  who  frequently  visited  Oxford,  was  very  likely  to  hear 
of  them.'  Though  Gibbon's  Autobiography  ends  with  the  year  1788, 
yet  he  wrote  portions  of  it,  I  believe,  after  the  publication  of  the  Life 
of  Johnson.  See  afitc,  ii.  9,  note  i.  I  have  little  doubt  that  in  the 
following  lines  he  refers  to  the  attack  thus  made  on  him  by  Boswell 
and  Johnson.  '  Many  years  afterwards,  when  the  name  of  Gibbon 
was  become  as  notorious  as  that  of  Middleton,  it  was  industriously 
whispered  at  Oxford  that  the  historian  had  formerly  "  turned  Pa- 
pist ;"  my  character  stood  exposed  to  the  reproach  of  inconstancy.' 
Gibbon's  Misc.  Works,  i.  65. 

"   Steele,  in  his  Apology  for  Himself  and  his    Writings  (cd.  1 7 14, 

p.  80),  says  of  himself: — '  He  first  became  an  author  when  an  ensign 

of  the  Guards,  a  way  of  life  exposed  to  much  irregularity,  and  being 

II.— 33  no 


514  Tristram  Shandy.  [a.d.  1776. 

no  means  strictly  suitable.  JOHNSON.  'Steele,  I  believe, 
practised  the  lighter  vices.' 

Mr.  Warton,  being  engaged,  could  not  sup  with  us  at  our 
inn;  we  had  therefore  another  evening  by  ourselves.  I  asked 
Johnson,  whether  a  man's'  being  forward  to  make  himself 
known  to  eminent  people,  and  seeing  as  much  of  life,  and 
getting  as  much  information  as  he  could  in  every  way,  was 
not  yet  lessening  himself  by  his  forwardness.  JOHNSON. 
'No,  Sir;  a  man  always  makes  himself  greater  as  he  in- 
creases his  knowledge.' 

I  censured  some  ludicrous  fantastick  dialogues  between 
two  coach-horses  and  other  such  stuff,  which  Baretti  had 
lately  published ^  He  joined  with  me,  and  said,  'Noth- 
ing odd  will  do  long.      Tristram  SJiandy  did  not  last'.'     I 

thoroughly  convinced  of  many  things  of  which  he  often  repented, 
and  which  he  more  often  repeated,  he  writ,  for  his  own  private  use, 
a  Httle  book  called  the  Christian  Hero,  with  a  design  principally  to 
fix  upon  his  own  mind  a  strong  impression  of  virtue  and  religion,  in 
opposition  to  a  stronger  propensity  towards  unwarrantable  pleasures. 
This  secret  admonition  was  too  weak ;  he  therefore  printed  the  book 
with  his  name,  in  hopes  that  a  standing  testimony  against  himself, 
and  the  eyes  of  the  world,  that  is  to  say  of  his  acquaintance,  upon 
him  in  a  new  light,  might  curb  his  desires,  and  make  him  ashamed  of 
understanding  and  seeming  to  feel  what  was  virtuous,  and  living  so 
quite  contrary  a  life.' 

'  '  A  man,'  no  doubt,  is  Boswell  himself. 

-  '"  I  was  sure  when  I  read  it  that  the  preface  to  Baretti's  Dia- 
logues was  Dr. Johnson's;  and  that  I  made  him  confess."  "Baretti's 
Dialogues!  What  are  they  about?"  "A  thimble,  and  a  spoon,  and 
a  knife,  and  a  fork !  They  are  the  most  absurd,  and  yet  the  most 
laughable  things  you  ever  saw.  They  were  written  for  Miss  Thrale, 
and  all  the  dialogues  are  between  her  and  him,  except  now  and  then 
a  shovel  and  a  poker,  or  a  goose  and  a  chair  happen  to  step  in." ' 
Mme.  D'Arblay's  Diary,  ii.  263. 

^  '  April  4,  1760.  At  present  nothing  is  talked  of,  nothing  admired, 
but  what  I  cannot  help  calling  a  very  insipid  and  tedious  performance  ; 
it  is  a  kind  of  novel  called  The  Life  and  Opinions  of  Tristram  Shan- 
dy ;  the  great  humour  of  which  consists  in  the  whole  narration  always 
going  backwards.'  Walpole's  Zt'/Zd-rj,  iii.  298.  '  March  7,  1761.  The 
second  and  third  volumes  of  Tristrajn  Shandy,  the  dregs  of  nonsense, 
have  universally  met  the  contempt  they  deserve.'     lb.  382.     ' "  My 

expressed 


Aetat.  G7.]  Btirkes  stream  of  mind.  5 1 5 

expressed  a  desire  to  be  acquainted  with  a  lady  who  had 
been  much  talked  of,  and  universally  celebrated  for  extraor- 
dinary address  and  insinuation'.  JOHNSON.  '  Never  believe 
extraordinary  characters  which  you  hear  of  people.  De- 
pend upon  it,  Sir,  they  are  exaggerated.  You  do  not  see 
one  man  shoot  a  great  deal  higher  than  another.'  I  men- 
tioned Mr.  Burke.  JOHNSON.  'Yes;  Burke  is  an  extraordi- 
nary man.  His  stream  of  mind  is  perpetuaP.'  It  is  very 
pleasing  to  me  to  record,  that  Johnson's  high  estimation 
of  the  talents  of  this  gentleman  was  uniform  from  their 
early  acquaintance.  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  informs  me,  that 
when  oNIr.  Burke  was  first  elected  a  member  of  Parliament, 
and  Sir  John  Hawkins  expressed  a  wonder  at  his  attain- 
ing a  seat,  Johnson  said,  '  Now  we  who  know  Mr.  Burke, 

good  friend,"  said  Dr.  Farmer  {ante,  i.  426),  one  day  in  the  parlour  at 
Emanuel  College,  "you  young  men  seem  very  fond  of  this  Tristram 
Shandy  ;  but  mark  my  words,  however  much  it  may  be  talked  about 
at  present,  yet,  depend  upon  it,  in  the  course  of  twenty  years,  should 
any  one  wish  to  refer  to  it,  he  will  be  obliged  to  go  to  an  antiquarj^ 
to  inquire  for  it."'  Croker's  Bosi^'cll,  ed.  1844,  ii.  339.  See  ante,  ii. 
199,  note  2,  and  254. 

'  Mrs.  Rudd.  She  and  the  two  brothers  Perreau  were  charged  with 
forgery.  She  was  tried  first  and  acquitted,  the  verdict  of  the  jury 
being  '  not  guilty,  according  to  the  evidence  before  us.'  The  Ann. 
R£g.y.v\\\.  231,  adds: — 'There  were  the  loudest  applauses  on  this  ac- 
quittal almost  ever  known  in  a  court  of  justice.'  '  The  issue  of  Mrs. 
Rudd's  trial  was  thought  to  involve  the  fate  of  the  Perreaus ;  and 
the  popular  fancy  had  taken  the  part  of  the  woman  as  against  the 
men.'  They  were  convicted  and  hanged,  protesting  their  innocence. 
Letters  of  Boswell,  pp.  223-230.  Boswell  wrote  to  Temple  on  April 
28 : — '  You  know  my  curiosity  and  love  of  adventure ;  I  have  got 
acquainted  with  the  celebrated  Mrs.  Rudd.'  lb.  p.  233.  Three  days 
later,  he  wrote  : — '  Perhaps  the  adventure  with  Mrs.  Rudd  is  very  fool- 
ish, notwithstanding  Dr.  Johnson's  approbation.'  lb.  p.  235.  Sec  post, 
iii.  91,  and  April  28,  1778. 

'  ScG  post.  May  15,  1784,  where  Johnson  says  that  Mrs.  Montagu  has 
'  a  constant  stream  of  conversation,'  and  a  second  time  allows  that 
'  Burke  is  an  extraordinary  man.'  Johnson  writes  of  '  a  stream  of 
melody.'  Works,  \\\\.  92.  '  For  Burke's  conversation  sac  post,  April  7, 
1778,  1780,  in  Mr.  Langton's  Collection,  March  21,  1783,  and  Boswell's 
Hebrides,  Aug.  15. 

know, 


5i6  Ejigland  happy  in  its  inns.  [a.d.  177«. 

know,  that  he  will  be  one  of  the  first  men  in  this  coun- 
try'.' And  once,  when  Johnson  was  ill,  and  unable  to  exert 
himself  as  much  as  usual  without  fatigue,  Mr.  Burke  hav- 
ing been  mentioned,  he  said,  '  That  fellow  calls  forth  all 
my  powers.  Were  I  to  see  Burke  now  it  would  kill  me\' 
So  much  was  he  accustomed  to  consider  conversation  as  a 
contest',  and  such  was  his  notion  of  Burke  as  an  opponent. 

Next  morning,  Thursday,  March  21,  we  set  out  in  a  post- 
chaise  to  pursue  our  ramble.  It  was  a  delightful  day,  and 
we  rode  through  Blenheim  park.  When  I  looked  at  the  mag- 
nificent bridge  built  by  John  Duke  of  Marlborough,  over  a 
small  rivulet,  and  recollected  the  Epigram  made  upon  it — 

*  The  lofty  arch  his  high  ambition  shows, 
The  stream,  an  emblem  of  his  bounty  flows  * :' 

and  saw  that  now,  by  the  genius  of  Brown '",  a  magnificent 
body  of  water  was  collected,  I  said, '  They  have  droivncd  the 
Epigram.*  I  observed  to  him,  while  in  the  midst  of  the 
noble  scene  around  us,  '  You  and  I,  Sir,  have,  I  think,  seen 
together  the  extremes  of  what  can  be  seen  in  Britain  : — the 
wild  rough  island  of  Mull,  and  Blenheim  park.' 

We  dined  at  an  excellent  inn  at  Chapel-house,  where  he 
expatiated  on  the  felicity  of  England  in  its  taverns  and  inns, 
and  triumphed  over  the  French  for  not  having,  in  any  per- 
fection, the  tavern  life.  '  There  is  no  private  house,  (said 
he,)  in  which  people  can  enjoy  themselves  so  well,  as  at  a 
capital  tavern.  Let  there  be  ever  so  great  plenty  of  good 
things,  ever  so  much  grandeur,  ever  so  much  elegance,  ever 

'  See  ante,  ii.  18. 

"  According  to  Boswell's  record  in  Bosiuclliana,  p.  273,  two  sayings 
are  here  united.  He  there  writes,  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Langton : 
— '  Dr.  Johnson  had  a  very  high  opinion  of  Edmund  Burke.  He  said, 
"  That  fellow  calls  forth  all  my  powers ;"  and  once  when  he  was  out 
of  spirits  and  rather  dejected  he  said, "  Were  I  to  see  Burke  now 
'twould  kill  me."  ' 

^  See  ante,  ii.  115,  iii.  27,  and  under  May  8,  1781. 

*  In  a  note  on  The  Dtmciad,  ii.  50,  the  author  of  this  epigram  is  said 
to  be  Dr.  Evans. 

'  Capability  Brown,  as  he  was  called.     Se.Q  post,  Oct.  10,  1779. 

so 


Aetat.  G7.]  England  happy  in  its  inns.  517 

so  much  desire  that  every  body  should  be  easy ;  in  the 
nature  of  things  it  cannot  be :  there  must  always  be  some 
degree  of  care  and  anxiety.  The  master  of  the  house  is 
anxious  to  entertain  his  guests ;  the  guests  are  anxious  to 
be  agreeable  to  him :  and  no  man,  but  a  very  impudent  dog 
indeed,  can  as  freely  command  what  is  in  another  man's 
house,  as  if  it  were  his  own'.  Whereas,  at  a  tavern,  there  is 
a  general  freedom  from  anxiety.  You  are  sure  you  are  wel- 
come: and  the  more  noise  you  make,  the  more  trouble  you 
give,  the  more  good  things  you  call  for,  the  welcomer  you 
are.  No  servants  will  attend  you  with  the  alacrity  which 
waiters  do,  who  are  incited  by  the  prospect  of  an  immediate 
reward  in  proportion  as  they  please.  No,  Sir  ;  there  is  noth- 
ing which  has  yet  been  contrived  by  man,  by  which  so 
much  happiness  is  produced  as  by  a  good  tavern  or  inn\' 
He  then  repeated,  with  great  emotion,  Shenstone's  lines : — 


'  Such  an  'impudent  dog'  had  Boswell  himself  been  in  Corsica. 
,•  Before  I  was  accustomed  to  the  Corsican  hospitality,'  he  wrote, '  I 
sometimes  forgot  myself,  and  imagining  I  was  in  a  publick  house, 
called  for  what  I  wanted,  with  the  tone  which  one  uses  in  calling  to 
the  waiters  at  a  tavern.  I  did  so  at  Pino,  asking  for  a  variety  of  things 
at  once,  when  Signora  Tomasi  perceiving  my  mistake,  looked  in  my 
face  and  smiled,  saying  with  much  calmness  and  good  nature,  "  una 
cosa  dopo  un  altra,  Signore.  One  thing  after  another.  Sir." '  Bos- 
well's  Corsica,  ^6..  1879,  p.  151.  A  Corsican  gentleman,  who  knows 
the  Tomasi  family,  told  me  that  this  reply  is  preserved  among  them 
by  tradition. 

°  Sir  John  Hawkins  has  preserved  very  few  Meviorabilta  of  John- 
son. There  is,  however,  to  be  found,  in  his  bulky  tome  [p.  87],  a  very 
excellent  one  upon  this  subject: — 'In  contradiction  to  those,  who, 
having  a  wife  and  children,  prefer  domcstick  enjoyments  to  those 
which  a  tavern  affords,  I  have  heard  him  assert,  that  a  tavern  chair 
■was  the  throne  of  hiwian  felicity. — "  As  soon,"  said  he,  "  as  I  enter  the 
door  of  a  tavern,  I  experience  an  oblivion  of  care,  and  a  freedom  from 
solicitude :  when  I  am  seated,  I  find  the  master  courteous,  and  the 
servants  obsequious  to  my  call ;  anxious  to  know  and  ready  to  sup- 
ply my  wants:  wine  there  exhilarates  my  spirits,  and  prompts  me  to 
free  conversation  and  an  interchange  of  discourse  with  those  whom  I 
most  love:  I  dogmatise  and  am  contradicted,  and  in  this  conflict  of 
opinions  and  sentiments  I  find  delight."  '     Boswell. 

'  Whoe'er 


5i8  Shenstones  lines  on  an  inn.  [a.d.  1776. 

'Whoe'er  has  travell'd  Ufe's  dull  round, 
Where'er  his  stages  may  have  been, 
May  sigh  to  think  he  still  has  found 
The  warmest  welcome  at  an  inn'.' 


My  illustrious  friend,  I  thought,  did  not  sufficiently  ad- 
mire Shenstone".  That  ingenious  and  elegant  gentleman's 
opinion  of  Johnson  appears  in  one  of  his  letters  to  Mr. 
Graves',  dated  Feb.  9,  1760.  'I  have  lately  been  reading 
one  or  two  volumes  of  The  Rambler  ;  who,  excepting  against 
some  few  hardnesses"  in  his  manner,  and  the  want  of  more 
examples  to  enliven,  is  one  of  the  most  nervous,  most  per- 
spicuous, most  concise,  [and]  most  harmonious  prose  writers 
I  know.     A  learned  diction  improves  by  time.' 

In  the  afternoon,  as  we  were  driven  rapidly  along  in  the 
post-chaise,  he  said  to  me  '  Life  has  not  many  things  better 
than  this'.' 

We  stopped  at  Stratford-upon-Avon,  and  drank  tea  and 

'  We  happened  to  He  this  night  at  the  inn  at  Henley,  where  Shen-* 
stone  wrote  these  lines  *.     Boswell. 

^  See  Boswell 's  Hebrides,  Sept.  29. 

'  See  Shenstone's  Works,  ill.  311.  Rev.  Richard  Graves,  author  of 
The  Spiritual  (lidxoie.  He  and  Shenstone  were  fellow-students  at 
Pembroke  College,  Oxford. 

^  '  He  too  often  makes  use  of  the  abstract  for  the  concrete.'  Shen- 
stone.    Boswell. 

^  '  I  asked  him  why  he  doated  on  a  coach  so,  and  received  for  an- 
swer, that  in  the  first  place  the  company  was  shut  in  with  him  there, 
and  could  not  escape  as  out  of  a  room  ;  in  the  next  place  he  heard  all 
that  was  said  in  a  carriage,  where  it  was  my  turn  to  be  deaf.'  Piozzi's 
Anec.  p.  276.  Sqq  post,  iii.  5,  1S4.  Gibbon,  at  the  end  of  a  journey  in 
a  post-chaise,  wrote  (Misc.  Works,  i.  408)  : — '  I  am  always  so  much  de- 
lighted and  improved  with  this  union  of  ease  and  motion,  that,  were 
not  the  expense  enormous,  I  would  travel  every  year  some  hundred 
miles,  more  especially  in  England.' 

'^  I  give  them  as  they  .ire  found  in  the  corrected  edition  of  his  Works,  published  after  his 
death.     In  Dodsley's  collection  the  stanza  ran  thus  :  — 

'  Whoe'er  has  travell'd  life's  dull  round, 
Whate'er  his  various  tour  /las  been, 
May  sigh  to  think  fioTv  oft  he  found 
HU  warmest  vve'.come  at  an  Inn.'  Boswell. 

coffee ; 


Aetat.  67.]  Dyer  s  Fleece.  519 

coffee;  and  it  pleased  me  to  be  with  him  upon  the  classick 
ground  of  Shakspeare's  native  place. 

He  spoke  sHghtingly  of  Dyer's  Flcccc\  —  'The  subject, 
Sir,  cannot  be  made  poeticaL  How  can  a  man  write  poet- 
ically of  serges  and  druggets  ?  Yet  you  will  hear  many 
people  talk  to  you  gravely  of  that  excellent  poem,  Tlic 
Fleece.'  Having  talked  of  Grainger's  Sugar -Cane,  I  men- 
tioned to  him  Mr.  Langton's  having  told  me,  that  this 
poem,  when  read  in  manuscript  at  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds's, 
had  made  all  the  assembled  wits  burst  into  a  laugh,  when, 
after  much  blank-verse  pomp,  the  poet  began  a  new  para- 
graph thus : — 

'  Now,  Muse,  let's  sing  of  7-ats.'' 

And  what  increased  the  ridicule  was,  that  one  of  the  com- 
pany, who  slily  overlooked  the  reader,  perceived  that  the 
word  had  been  originally  mice,  and  had  been  altered  to  rats, 
as  more  dignified  \ 


'  Johnson  {IVorks,  \\\\.  i\.o6)  tells  the  following  'ludicrous  story'  of 
The  Fleece.  '  Dodsley  the  bookseller  was  one  day  mentioning  it  to  a 
critical  visitor  with  more  expectation  of  success  than  the  other  could 
easily  admit.  In  the  conversation  the  author's  age  was  asked ;  and, 
being  represented  as  advanced  in  life,  "  He  will,"  said  the  critic,  "be 
buried  in  woollen." '  To  encourage  the  trade  in  wool,  an  Act  was 
passed  requiring  the  dead  to  be  buried  in  woollen.  Burke  refers  to 
this  when  he  says  of  Lord  Chatham,  who  was  swathed  in  flannel 
owing  to  the  gout : — '  Like  a  true  obeyer  of  the  laws,  he  will  be  bur- 
ied in  woollen.'  Burke's  Corres.  ii.20i.  Hawkins  (Life,  p.  231)  says: 
— 'A  portrait  of  Samuel  Dyer  \?>Q.^post,  1780,  in  Mr.  Langton's  Collec- 
tion'] was  painted  by  Sir  Joshua,  and  from  it  a  mezzotinto  was  scraped  ; 
the  print  whereof,  as  he  was  little  known,  sold  only  to  his  friends.  A 
singular  use  was  made  of  it ;  Bell,  the  publisher  of  Tkc  English  Poets, 
caused  an  engraving  to  be  made  from  it,  and  prefixed  it  to  the  poems 
of  Mr.  John  Dyer.' 

-  Such  is  this  little  laughable  incident,  which  has  been  often  re- 
lated. Dr.  Percy,  the  Bishop  of  Dromore,  who  was  an  intimate  friend 
of  Dr.  Grainger,  and  has  a  particular  regard  for  his  memory,  has  com- 
municated to  me  the  following  explanation  : — 

'  The  passage  in  question  was  originally  not  liable  to  such  a  per- 
version ;  for  the  authour  having  occasion  in  that  part  of  his  work  to 

This 


520  Grainger  s  Sugar-Cane.  [a. d.  1776. 

This  passage  does  not  appear  in  the  printed  work.  Dr. 
Grainger,  or  some  of  his  friends,  it  should  seem,  having  be- 
come sensible  that  introducing  even  Rats  in  a  grave  poem, 
might  be  liable  to  banter.  He,  however,  could  not  bring 
himself  to  relinquish  the  idea ;  for  they  are  thus,  in  a  still 
more  ludicrous  manner,  periphrastically  exhibited  in  his 
poem  as  it  now  stands : 

'Nor  with  less  waste  the  whisker'd  vermin  race 
A  countless  clan  despoil  the  lowland  cane.' 

Johnson  said,  that  Dr.  Grainger  was  an  agreeable  man  ; 
a  man  who  would  do  any  good  that  was  in  his  power.  His 
translation  of  Tibidliis,  he  thought,  was  very  well  done  ;  but 
The  Siigar-Canc,  a  poem,  did  not  please  him';  for,  he  ex- 
claimed, '  What  could  he  make  of  a  sugar-cane?  One  might 
as  well  write  the  "  Parsley-bed,  a  Poem  ;"  or  "  The  Cabbage- 
garden,  a  Poem."  '  BOSWELL.  '  You  must  then  pickle  your 
cabbage  with  the  sal attiaitn'  JOHNSON.  'You  know  there 
is  already    The  Hop-Garden,  a  Poem":  and,  I   think,  one 


mention  the  havock  made  by  rats  and  mice,  had  introduced  the  sub- 
ject in  a  kind  of  mock  heroick,  and  a  parody  of  Homer's  battle  of  the 
frogs  and  mice,  invoking  the  Muse  of  the  old  Grecian  bard  in  an  ele- 
gant and  well-turned  manner.  In  that  state  I  had  seen  it ;  but  after- 
wards, unknown  to  me  and  other  friends,  he  had  been  persuaded,  con- 
trary to  his  own  better  judgement,  to  alter  it,  so  as  to  produce  the 
unlucky  effect  above-mentioned.* 

The  above  was  written  by  the  Bishop  when  he  had  not  the  Poem 
itself  to  recur  to ;  and  though  the  account  given  was  true  of  it  at  one 
period,  yet  as  Dr.  Grainger  afterwards  altered  the  passage  in  question, 
the  remarks  in  the  text  do  not  now  apply  to  the  printed  poem. 

The  Bishop  gives  this  character  of  Dr.  Grainger :— '  He  was  not 
only  a  man  of  genius  and  learning,  but  had  many  excellent  virtues ; 
being  one  of  the  most  generous,  friendly,  and  benevolent  men  I  ever 
knew.'     BoswELL. 

'  Dr.  Johnson  said  to  me, '  Percy,  Sir,  was  angry  with  me  for  laugh- 
ing at  The  Sugar-cane :  for  he  had  a  mind  to  make  a  great  thing 
of  Grainger's  rats.'  Boswell.  Johnson  helped  Percy  in  writing  a 
review  of  this  poem  in  1764  {a)ite,  i.  557). 

*  In  Poems  by  Christopher  Smart,  ed.  1752,  p.  loo.     One  line  may 

could 


Aetat.  67.]     A  ^Hcdical  muii s  singular  history.  521 

could  say  a  great  deal  about  cabbage.  The  poem  might 
begin  with  the  advantages  of  civiHsed  society  over  a  rude 
state,  exemphfied  by  the  Scotch,  who  had  no  cabbages 
till  Oliver  Cromwell's  soldiers  introduced  them';  and  one 
might  thus  shew  how  arts  are  propagated  by  conquest,  as 
they  were  b}"  the  Roman  arms.'  He  seemed  to  be  much 
diverted  with  the  fertility  of  his  own  fancy. 

I  told  him,  that  1  heard  Dr.  Percy  was  writing  the  history 
of  the  wolf  in  Great- Britain.  JOHNSON.  'The  wolf.  Sir! 
why  the  wolf?  Why  does  he  not  write  of  the  bear,  which 
we  had  formerly?  Nay,  it  is  said  we  had  the  beaver.  Or 
why  does  he  not  write  of  the  grey  rat,  the  Hanover  rat,  as 
it  is  called,  because  it  is  said  to  have  come  into  this  coun- 
try about  the  time  that  the  family  of  Hanover  came?  I 
should  like  to  see  The  History  of  the  Grey  Rat,  by  Thomas 
Percy,  D.D.,  Chaplain  in  Ordinary  to  His  Majesty,''  (laugh- 
ing immoderately).  BOSWELL,  '  I  am  afraid  a  court  chap- 
lain could  not  decently  write  of  the  grey  rat.'  JOHNSON. 
'  Sir,  he  need  not  give  it  the  name  of  the  Hanover  rat.' 
Thus  could  he  indulge  a  luxuriant  sportive  imagination, 
when  talking  of  a  friend  whom  he  loved  and  esteemed. 

He  mentioned  to  me  the  singular  history  of  an  ingenious 
acquaintance.  '  He  had  practised  physick  in  various  situa- 
tions with  no  great  emolument.  A  West-India  gentleman, 
whom  he  delighted  by  his  conversation,  gave  him  a  bond 
for  a  handsome  annuity  during  his  life,  on  the  condition  of 
his  accompanying  him  to  the  West-Indies,  and  living  with 
him  there  for  two  years.  He  accordingly  embarked  with 
the  gentleman ;  but  upon  the  voyage  fell  in  love  with  a 
young  woman  who  happened  to  be  one  of  the  passengers, 
and  married  the  wench.  From  the  imprudence  of  his  dis- 
position he  quarrelled  with  the  gentleman,  and  declared  he 
would  have  no  connection  with  him.     So  he  forfeited  the 


serve  as  a  sample  of  the  whole  poem.     Writing  of  '  Hacchus,  God  of 
hops,'  the  poet  says  : — 

'  Tis  he  shall  gcn'rate  the  buxom  beer.' 
'  See  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  22. 

annuitw 


522      Johnson  and  Boswell  at  Birmingham,  [a.d.  1776. 

annuity.  He  settled  as  a  physician  in  one  of  the  Leeward 
Islands.  A  man  was  sent  out  to  him  merely  to  compound 
his  medicines.  This  fellow  set  up  as  a  rival  to  him  in  his 
practice  of  physick,  and  got  so  much  the  better  of  him  in 
the  opinion  of  the  people  of  the  island  that  he  carried  away 
all  the  business,  upon  which  he  returned  to  England,  and 
soon  after  died.' 

On  Friday,  March  22,  having  set  out  early  from  Henley ', 
where  we  had  lain  the  preceding  night,  we  arrived  at  Bir- 
mingham about  nine  o'clock,  and,  after  breakfast,  went  to 
call  on  his  old  schoolfellow  Mr.  Hector \  A  very  stupid 
maid,  who  opened  the  door,  told  us,  that  '  her  master  was 
gone  out ;  he  was  gone  to  the  country ;  she  could  not  tell 
when  he  would  return.'  In  short,  she  gave  us  a  miserable 
reception  ;  and  Johnson  observed, '  She  would  have  behaved 
no  better  to  people  who  wanted  him  in  the  way  of  his  pro- 
fession.' He  said  to  her, '  My  name  is  Johnson  ;  tell  him 
I  called.  Will  you  remember  the  name  ?'  She  answered 
with  rustick  simplicity,  in  the  Warwickshire  pronunciation, 
'I  don't  understand  you.  Sir.* — '  Blockhead,  (said  he,)  I'll 
write.'  I  never  heard  the  word  blockhead  applied  to  a 
woman  before,  though  I  do  not  see  why  it  should  not, 
when  there  is  evident  occasion  for  it".     He,  however,  made 

'   Henley  in  Arden,  thirteen  miles  from  Birmingham. 

-  Mr.  Hector's  house  was  in  the  Square — now  known  as  the  Old 
Square.  It  afterwards  formed  part  of  the  Stork  Hotel,  but  it  was 
pulled  down  when  Corporation  Street  was  made.  A  marble  tablet 
had  been  placed  on  the  house  at  the  suggestion  of  the  late  Mr. 
George  Dawson,  marking  the  spot  where  '  Edmund  Hector  was  the 
host,  Samuel  Johnson  the  guest.'  This  tablet,  together  with  the 
wainscoting,  the  door,  and  the  mantelpiece  of  one  of  the  rooms,  was 
set  up  in  Aston  Hall,  at  the  Johnson  Centenar)%  in  a  room  that  is  to 
be  known  as  Dr.  Johnson's  Room. 

"  My  worthy  friend  Mr.  Langton,  to  whom  I  am  under  innumerable 
obligations  in  the  course  of  my  Johnsonian  History,  has  furnished  me 
with  a  droll  illustration  of  this  question.  An  honest  carpenter,  after 
giving  some  anecdote  in  his  presence  of  the  ill-treatment  which  he 
had  received  from  a  clergyman's  wife,  who  v/as  a  noted  termagant, 
and  whom  he  accused  of  unjust  dealing  in  some  transaction  with  him, 

another 


Aetat.  07.]  Mr.  Lloyd,  the  Quaker.  523 

another  attempt  to  make  her  understand  him,  and  roared 
loud  in  her  ear, '  jfohnson,'  and  then  she  catched  the  sound. 

We  next  called  on  Mr.  Lloyd,  one  of  the  people  called 
Quakers.  He  too  was  not  at  home ;  but  Mrs.  Lloyd  was, 
and  received  us  courteously,  and  asked  us  to  dinner.  John- 
son said  to  me, '  After  the  uncertainty  of  all  human  things 
at  Hector's,  this  invitation  came  very  well.'  We  walked 
about  the  town,  and  he  was  pleased  to  see  it  increasing. 

I  talked  of  legitimation  by  subsequent  marriage,  which 
obtained  in  the  Roman  law,  and  still  obtains  in  the  law  of 
Scotland.  JOHNSON.  'I  think  it  a  bad  thing;  because  the 
chastity  of  women  being  of  the  utmost  importance,  as  all 
property  depends  upon  it,  they  who  forfeit  it  should  not 
have  any  possibility  of  being  restored  to  good  character; 
nor  should  the  children,  by  an  illicit  connection,  attain  the 
full  right  of  lawful  children,  by  the  posteriour  consent  of 
the  offending  parties.'  His  opinion  upon  this  subject  de- 
serves consideration.  Upon  his  principle  there  may,  at 
times,  be  a  hardship,  and  seemingly  a  strange  one,  upon  in- 
dividuals ;  but  the  general  good  of  society  is  better  secured. 
And,  after  all,  it  is  unreasonable  in  an  individual  to  repine 
that  he  has  not  the  advantage  of  a  state  which  is  made  dif- 
ferent from  his  own,  by  the  social  institution  under  which 
he  is  born.  A  woman  does  not  complain  that  her  brother, 
who  is  younger  than  her,  gets  their  common  father's  estate. 
Why  then  should  a  natural  son  complain  that  a  younger 
brother,  by  the  same  parents  lawfully  begotten,  gets  it? 
The  operation  of  law  is  similar  in  both  cases.  Besides,  an 
illegitimate  son,  who  has  a  younger  legitimate  brother  by 
the  same  father  and  mother,  has  no  stronger  claim  to  the 
father's  estate,  than  if  that  legitimate  brother  had  only  the 
same  father,  from  whom  alone  the  estate  descends. 

Mr.  Lloyd  joined  us  in  the  street ;  and  in  a  little  while  we 
met  Friend  Hector,  as  Mr.  Llo)'d  called  him.     It  gave  me 


added, '  I  took  care  to  let  her  know  what  I  thought  of  her.'  And 
being  asked, '  What  did  you  say?"  answered,  'I  told  her  she  was  a 
scoundrel.'     Boswell. 

pleasure 


524  The  sect  of  the  Quakers.  [a.d.  ittc. 

pleasure  to  observe  the  joy  which  Johnson  and  he  expressed 
on  seeing  each  other  again.  Mr.  Lloyd  and  I  left  them  to- 
gether, while  he  obligingly  shewed  me  some  of  the  manu- 
factures of  this  very  curious  assemblage  of  artificers.  We 
all  met  at  dinner  at  Mr.  Lloyd's,  where  we  were  entertained 
with  great  hospitality.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lloyd  had  been  mar- 
ried the  same  year  with  their  Majesties,  and  like  them,  had 
been  blessed  with  a  numerous  family  of  fine  children,  their 
numbers  being  exactly  the  same.  Johnson  said, '  Marriage 
is  the  best  state  for  a  man  in  general ;  and  every  man  is 
a  worse  man,  in  proportion  as  he  is  unfit  for  the  married 
state.' 

I  have  always  loved  the  simplicity  of  manners,  and  the 
spiritual-mindedness  of  the  Quakers;  and  talking  with  Mr. 
Lloyd,  I  observed,  that  the  essential  part  of  religion  was  pie- 
ty, a  devout  intercourse  with  the  Divinity;  and  that  many 
a  man  was  a  Quaker  without  knowing  it. 

As  Dr.  Johnson  had  said  to  me  in  the  morning,  while  we 
walked  together,  that  he  liked  individuals  among  the  Quak- 
ers, but  not  the  sect ;  when  we  were  at  Mr.  Lloyd's,  I  kept 
clear  of  introducing  any  questions  concerning  the  peculiari- 
ties of  their  faith.  But  I  having  asked  to  look  at  Basker- 
ville's  edition  of  Barclay  s  Apology,  Johnson  laid  hold  of  it ; 
and  the  chapter  on  baptism  happening  to  open,  Johnson  re- 
marked, '  He  says  there  is  neither  precept  nor  practice  for 
baptism,  in  the  scriptures;  that  is  false.'  Here  he  was  the 
aggressor,  by  no  means  in  a  gentle  manner ;  and  the  good 
Quakers  had  the  advantage  of  him ;  for  he  had  read  neg- 
ligently, and  had  not  observed  that  Barclay  speaks  of  in- 
fant baptism';  which  they  calmly  made  him  perceive.  Mr. 
Lloyd,  however,  was  in  as  great  a  mistake ;  for  when  insist- 
ing that  the  rite  of  baptism  by  water  was  to  cease,  when  the 
spiritual  administration  of  CHRIST  began,  he  maintained, 
that  John  the  Baptist  said,  *  J/j'  baptism  shall  decrease,  but 

'  '  As  to  the  baptism  of  infants,  it  is  a  mere  human  tradition,  for 
which  neither  precept  nor  practice  is  to  be  found  in  all  the  Scripture.' 
Barclay's  Apology,  Proposition  xii.  ed.  1703,  p.  409. 

his 


Aetat.  67.]         Mr.  Boltoiis  works  at  Solio.  525 

]iis  shall  increase.'  Whereas  the  words  are,  ^ He  must  in- 
crease, but  /must  decrease'.' 

One  of  them  having  objected  to  the  '  observance  of  days, 
and  months,  and  years,'  Johnson  answered,  *  The  Church 
does  not  superstitiously  observe  days,  merely  as  days,  but 
as  memorials  of  important  facts.  Christmas  might  be  kept 
as  well  upon  one  day  of  the  year  as  another ;  but  there 
should  be  a  stated  day  for  commemorating  the  birth  of  our 
Saviour,  because  there  is  danger  that  what  may  be  done  on 
any  day,  will  be  neglected.' 

He  said  to  me  at  another  time,  'Sir,  the  holidays  observed 
by  our  church  are  of  great  use  in  religion.'  There  can  be 
no  doubt  of  this,  in  a  limited  sense,  I  mean  if  the  number 
of  such  consecrated  portions  of  timp  be  not  too  extensive. 
The  excellent  Mr.  Nelson's"  Festivals  and  Fasts,  which  has, 
I  understand,  the  greatest  sale  of  any  book  ever  printed  in 
England,  except  the  Bible,  is  a  most  valuable  help  to  de- 
votion ;  and  in  addition  to  it  I  would  recommend  two  ser- 
mons on  the  same  subject,  by  Mr.  Pott,  Archdeacon  of  St. 
Alban's,  equally  distinguished  for  piety  and  elegance.  I  am 
sorry  to  have  it  to  say,  that  Scotland  is  the  only  Christian 
countr>',  Catholick  or  Protestant,  where  the  great  events  of 
our  religion  are  not  solemnly  commemorated  by  its  ecclesi- 
astical establishment,  on  days  set  apart  for  the  purpose. 

Mr.  Hector  was  so  good  as  to  accompany  me  to  see  the 
great  works  of  Mr.  Bolton,  at  a  place  which  he  has  called 
Soho,  about  two  miles  from  Birmingham,  which  the  very  in- 
genious proprietor  shewed  me  himself  to  the  best  advan- 
tage. I  wish  Johnson  had  been  with  us:  for  it  was  a  scene 
which  I  should  have  been  glad  to  contemplate  by  his  light'. 

'  Jolin  iii.  30.     BOSWELL. 

'  Mr.  Seward  {Anec.  ii.  223)  says  that '  Dr.  Johnson  always  supposed 
that  Mr.  Richardson  had  Mr.  Nelson  in  his  thoughts  when  he  deline- 
ated the  character  of  Sir  Charles  Grandison."  Robert  Nelson  was 
born  in  1656,  and  died  in  171 5. 

^  '  Mr.  Arkwright  pronounced  J<jhnson  to  be  the  only  person  who 
on  a  first  view  understood  both  the  principle  and  powers  of  his  most 
complicated  pieces  of  machinery.'     Johnson's  Works  (1787),  xi.  215. 

The 


526  Airs.  Careless,  Johnsons  first-love.     [a.d.  1776. 

The  vastness  and  the  contrivance  of  some  of  the  machinery 
would  have  '  matched  his  mighty  mind.'  I  shall  never  for- 
get Mr.  Bolton's  expression  to  me :  '  I  sell  here,  Sir,  what 
all  the  world  desires  to  have — POWER.'  He  had  about  sev- 
en hundred  people  at  work.  I  contemplated  him  as  an  iron 
chieftain,  and  he  seemed  to  be  a  father  to  his  tribe.  One 
of  them  came  to  him,  complaining  grievously  of  his  land- 
lord for  having  distrained  his  goods.  '  Your  landlord  is  in 
the  right,  Smith,  (said  Bolton).  But  I'll  tell  you  what :  find 
you  a  friend  who  will  lay  down  one  half  of  your  rent,  and 
I'll  lay  down  the  other  half ;  and  you  shall  have  your  goods 
again.' 

From  Mr.  Hector  I  now  learnt  many  pafticulars  of  Dr. 
Johnson's  early  life,  which,  with  others  that  he  gave  me  at 
different  times  since,  have  contributed  to  the  formation  of 
this  work. 

Dr.  Johnson  said  to  me  in  the  morning,  '  You  will  see. 
Sir,  at  Mr.  Hector's,  his  sister,  Mrs.  Careless',  a  clergyman's 
widow.  She  was  the  first  woman  with  whom  I  was  in  love. 
It  dropt  out  of  my  head  imperceptibly ;  but  she  and  I  shall 
always  have  a  kindness  for  each  other.'     He  laughed  at  the 

Arthur  Young,  who  visited  Birmingham  in  1768,  writes: — 'I  was 
nowhere  more  disappointed  than  at  Birmingham,  where  I  could  not 
gain  any  intelligence  even  of  the  most  common  nature,  through  the 
excessive  jealousy  of  the  manufacturers.  It  seems  the  French  have 
carried  off  several  of  their  fabricks,  and  thereby  injured  the  town  not 
a  little.  This  makes  them  so  cautious  that  they  will  show  strangers 
scarce  anything.'     Tour  through  the  A^orth  of  England,  iii.  279. 

*  Johnson  wrote  to  Mrs.  Thrale  (year  not  given)  : — '  I  have  passed 
one  day  at  Birmingham  with  my  old  friend  Hector — there's  a  name — 
and  his  sister,  an  old  love.  My  mistress  is  grown  much  older  than 
my  friend. 

— "O  quid  habes  illius,  illius 

Quae  spirabat  amores 
Quae  me  surpuerat  mihi." ' 

['  Of  her,  of  her  what  now  remains, 
Who  breathed  the  loves,  who  charmed  the  swains, 
And  snatched  me  from  my  heart  ?' 
Francis,  Horace,  Odes,  iv.  13.  18.] 

Piozzi  Letters,  i.  290. 

notion 


Aetat, 67.]  Mr.  Charles  Congreve.  527 

notion  that  a  man  never  can  be  really  in  love  but  once,  and 
considered  it  as  a  mere  romantick  fancy. 

On  our  return  from  Mr.  Bolton's,  Mr.  Hector  took  me  to 
his  house,  where  we  found  Johnson  sitting  placidly  at  tea', 
with  his  first  love ;  who,  though  now  advanced  in  j^ears, 
was  a  genteel  woman,  very  agreeable,  and  well-bred. 

Johnson  lamented  to  Mr.  Hector  the  state  of  one  of  their 
school-fellows,  Mr.  Charles  Congreve,  a  clergyman,  which  he 
thus  described :  '  He  obtained,  I  believe,  considerable  pre- 
ferment in  Ireland,  but  now  lives  in  London,  quite  as  a  vale- 
tudinarian, afraid  to  go  into  any  house  but  his  own.  He 
takes  a  short  airing  in  his  post-chaise  every  day.  He  has 
an  elderly  woman,  whom  he  calls  cousin,  who  lives  with  him, 
and  jogs  his  elbow  when  his  glass  has  stood  too  long  empty, 
and  encourages  him  in  drinking,  in  which  he  is  very  willing 
to  be  encouraged ;  not  that  he  gets  drunk,  for  he  is  a  very 
pious  man,  but  he  is  always  muddy''.  He  confesses  to  one 
bottle  of  port  every  day,  and  he  probably  drinks  more.  He 
is  quite  unsocial ;  his  conversation  is  quite  monosyllabical : 
and  when,  at  my  last  visit,  I  asked  him  what  a  clock  it  was? 
that  signal  of  my  departure  had  so  pleasing  an  effect  on 
him,  that  he  sprung  up  to  look  at  his  watch,  like  a  grey- 
hound bounding  at  a  hare.'  When  Johnson  took  leave  of 
Mr.  Hector,  he  said,  '  Don't  grow  like  Congreve  ;  nor  let  me 
grow  like  him,  when  you  are  near  me^' 

When  he  again  talked  of  Mrs.  Careless  to-night,  he  seem- 
ed to  have  had  his  affection  revived;  for  he  said,  'If  I  had 

'  Some  years  later  he  wrote :— '  Mrs.  Careless  took  nie  under  her 
care,  and  told  me  when  I  had  tea  enough.'    lb.  ii.  205. 

*  See  atitc,  ii.  41 5,  note  3. 

^  Johnson,  in  a  letter  to  Hector,  on  March  7  of  this  year,  described 
Congreve  as  'very  dull,  very  valetudinary,  and  very  recluse,  willing,  I 
am  afraid,  to  forget  the  world,  and  content  to  be  forgotten  by  it,  to 
repose  in  that  sullen  sensuality  into  which  men  naturally  sink  who 
think  disease  a  justification  of  indulgence,  and  convense  only  with 
those  who  hope  to  prosper  by  indulging  them.  .  .  .  Infirmity  will 
come,  but  let  us  not  invite  it ;  indulgence  will  allure  us.  but  let  us 
turn  resolutely  away.  Time  cannot  always  be  defeated,  but  let  us  not 
yield  till  we  arc  conquered.'     Notes  and  (Jucrt'es,  6th  S.,  iii.  401. 

married 


528  The  Three  Crowns  at  Lichjiehi.      [a.d.  177G. 

married  her,  it  might  have  been  as  happy  for  me'.'  BOSWELL. 
'  Pray,  Sir,  do  you  not  suppose  that  there  are  fifty  women 
in  the  world,  with  any  one  of  whom  a  man  may  be  as  happy, 
as  with  any  one  woman  in  particular.'  Johnson.  'Ay,  Sir, 
fifty  thousand.'  BoswELL.  *  Then,  Sir,  you  are  not  of  opin- 
ion with  some  who  imagine  that  certain  men  and  certain 
women  are  made  for  each  other ;  and  that  they  cannot  be 
happy  if  they  miss  their  counterparts.'  JOHNSON.  'To  be 
sure  not.  Sir.  I  beheve  marriages  would  in  general  be  as 
happy,  and  often  more  so,  if  they  were  all  made  by  the  Lord 
Chancellor,  upon  a  due  consideration  of  characters  and  circum- 
stances, without  the  parties  having  any  choice  in  the  matter.' 
I  wished  to  have  staid  at  Birmingham  to-night,  to  have 
talked  more  with  Mr.  Hector;  but  my  friend  was  impatient 
to  reach  his  native  city ;  so  we  drove  on  that  stage  in  the 
dark,  and  were  long  pensive  and  silent.  When  we  came 
within  the  focus  of  the  Lichfield  lamps,  '  Now,  (said  he,) 
we  are  getting  out  of  a  state  of  death.'  We  put  up  at  the 
Three  Crowns,  not  one  of  the  great  inns,  but  a  good  old 
fashioned  one,  which  was  kept  by  Mr.  Wilkins,  and  was  the 
very  next  house  to  that  in  which  Johnson  was  born  and 
brought  up,  and  which  was  still  his  own  property".  We 
had  a  comfortable  supper,  and  got  into  high  spirits.  I  felt 
all  my  Toryism  glow  in  this  old  capital  of  Staffordshire.  I 
could  have  offered  incense  gcnio  loci;  and  I  indulged  in 
libations  of  that  ale,  which  Boniface,  in  TJic  Beaux  Strata- 
gem, recommends  with  such  an  eloquent  jollity'. 

'  In  the  same  letter  he  said  : — '  I  hope  dear  Mrs.  Careless  is  well,  and 
now  and  then  does  not  disdain  to  mention  my  name.  It  is  happy 
when  a  brother  and  sister  hve  to  pass  their  time  at  our  age  together. 
I  have  nobody  to  whom  I  can  talk  of  my  first  years— when  I  go  to 
Lichfield,  I  see  the  old  places,  but  find  nobody  that  enjoyed  them 
with  me.' 

^  I  went  through  the  house  where  my  illustrious  friend  was  born, 
with  a  reverence  with  which  it  doubtless  will  long  be  visited.  An 
engraved  view  of  it,  with  the  adjacent  buildings,  is  in  The  Gent.  Mag. 
for  Feb.  17S5.     Boswell. 

'  The  scene  of  Farquhar's  Beaux  Stratagem  is  laid  in  Lichfield. 
The  passage  in  which  the  ale  is  praised  begins  as  follows : — 

Next 


Aetat.  C7.]  Air.  Peter  Gar  rick. 


529 


Next  morning  he  introduced  me  to  Mrs.  Lucy  Porter,  his 
step-daughter.  She  was  now  an  old  maid,  with  much  sim- 
plicity of  manner.  She  had  never  been  in  London.  Her 
brother,  a  Captain  in  the  navy,  had  left  her  a  fortune  of  ten 
thousand  pounds ;  about  a  third  of  which  she  had  laid  out 
in  building  a  stately  house,  and  making  a  handsome  garden, 
in  an  elevated  situation  in  Lichfield.  Johnson,  when  here 
by  himself,  used  to  live  at  her  house.  She  reverenced  him, 
and  he  had  a  parental  tenderness  for  her'. 

We  then  visited  Mr.  Peter  Garrick,  who  had  that  morning 
received  a  letter  from  his  brother  David,  announcinsf  our 
coming  to  Lichfield.  He  was  engaged  to  dinner,  but  asked 
us  to  tea,  and  to  sleep  at  his  house.  Johnson,  however, 
would  not  quit  his  old  acquaintance  Wilkins,  of  the  Three 
Crowns.  The  family  likeness  of  the  Garricks  was  verj- 
striking*;  and  Johnson  thought  that  David's  vivacity  was 

'  Aimiucll.  I  have  heard  your  town  of  Lichfield  much  famed  for 
ale  ;  I  think  I'll  taste  that. 

'Boniface.  Sir,  I  have  now  in  my  cellar  ten  tun  of  the  best  ale  in 
Staffordshire ;  'tis  smooth  as  oil,  sweet  as  milk,  clear  as  amber,  and 
strong  as  brandy;  and  will  be  just  fourteen  year  old  the  fifth  day 
of  next  March,  old  style.'     Act  i.  sc.  i.     Set  post,  April  20,  1781. 

'  Though  his  letters  to  her  are  very  affectionate,  yet  what  he  wrote 
of  her  to  Mrs.  Thrale  shews  that  her  love  for  him  was  not  strong. 
Thus  he  writes: — 'July  20,  1767.  Miss  Lucy  is  more  kind  and  civil 
than  I  expected.'  Piozzi  Letters,  i.4.  'July  17,  1771.  Lucy  is  a  phi- 
losopher, and  considers  me  as  one  of  the  external  and  accidental 
things  that  are  to  be  taken  and  left  without  emotion.  If  I  could 
learn  of  Lucy,  would  it  be  better  ?  Will  you  teach  me  ?'  lb.  p.  46. 
'Aug.  1, 1775.  This  was  to  have  been  my  last  letter  from  this  place, 
but  Lucy  says  I  must  not  go  this  week.  Fits  of  tenderness  with  Mrs. 
Lucy  are  not  common,  but  she  seems  now  to  have  a  little  paroxysm, 
and  I  was  not  willing  to  counteract  it.'  Il>.  p.  293.  'Oct.  27,  1781. 
Poor  Lucy's  illness  has  left  her  very  deaf,  and  I  think,  very  inarticu- 
late. .  .  .  But  she  seems  to  like  me  better  than  she  did.'  lb.  ii.  208. 
'  Oct.  31,  1 78 1.  Poor  Lucy's  health  is  very  much  broken. . . .  Her  men- 
tal powers  are  not  impaired,  and  her  social  virtues  seem  to  increase. 
She  never  was  so  civil  to  me  before.'  /^.  p.  211,  On  his  mother's 
death  he  had  written  to  her : — '  Every  heart  must  lean  to  somebody, 
and  I  have  nobody  but  you.'     Sec  ante,  i.  597. 

*  See  ante,  ii.  355. 

n. — 34  not 


530  Mr.  Jackson,  Johnsons  schoolfellow,    [a.d.  1776. 

not  so  peculiar  to  himself  as  was  supposed.  '  Sir,  (said  he,) 
I  don't  know  but  if  Peter  had  cultivated  all  the  arts  of 
gaiety  as  much  as  David  has  done,  he  might' have  been 
as  brisk  and  lively.  Depend  upon  it,  Sir,  vivacity  is  much 
an  art,  and  depends  greatly  on  habit.'  I  believe  there  is 
a  jTood  deal  of  truth  in  this,  notwithstanding  a  ludicrous 
story  told  me  by  a  lady  abroad,  of  a  heavy  German  baron, 
who  had  lived  much  with  the  young  English  at  Geneva, 
and  was  ambitious  to  be  as  lively  as  they;  with  which  view, 
he,  with  assiduous  exertion,  was  jumping  over  the  tables 
and  chairs  in  his  lodgings ;  and  when  the  people  of  the 
house  ran  in  and  asked,  with  surprize,  what  was  the  matter, 
he  answered,  '  Sli  apprcns  fctrcfif.' 

We  dined  at  our  inn,  and  had  with  us  a  Mr.  Jackson", 
one  of  Johnson's  schoolfellows,  whom  he  treated  with  much 
kindness,  though  he  seemed  to  be  a  low  man,  dull  and  un- 
taught. He  had  a  coarse  grey  coat,  black  waistcoat,  greasy 
leather  breeches,  and  a  yellow  uncurled  wig ;  and  his  coun- 
tenance had  the  ruddiness  which  betokens  one  who  is  in  no 
haste  to  '  leave  his  can.'  He  drank  only  ale.  He  had  tried 
to  be  a  cutler  at  Birmingham,  but  had  not  succeeded  ;  and 
now  he  lived  poorly  at  home,  and  had  some  scheme  of  dress- 
ing leather  in  a  better  manner  than  common  ;  to  his  indis- 
tinct account  of  which,  Dr.  Johnson  listened  with  patient 
attention,  that  he  might  assist  him  with  his  advice.  Here 
was  an  instance  of  genuine  humanity  and  real  kindness  in 
this  great  man,  who  has  been  most  unjustly  represented  as 
altogether  harsh  and  destitute  of  tenderness.  A  thousand 
such  instances  might  have  been  recorded  in  the  course  of 
his  long  life ;  though  that  his  temper  was  warm  and  hasty, 
and  his  manner  often  rough,  cannot  be  denied. 

I  saw  here,  for  the  first  time,  oat  ale ;  and  oat  cakes  not 
hard  as  in  Scotland,  but  soft  like  a  Yorkshire  cake,  were 
served  at  breakfast.  It  was  pleasant  to  me  to  find,  that 
Oats,  the  food  of  ho?'scs",  were   so   much   used   as  the  food 

'  See  post,  iii.  149. 

*  Boswell  varies  Johnson's  definition,  which  was 'a  grain  which  in 

of 


>.r.  -^^^ 


s.    2 


■^^gtrfSTflW**"^ 


Aetat.  G7.]         Jolnisoii  s  provi7icial  acccuts.  531 

of  the  people  in  Dr.  Johnson's  own  town.  He  expatiated  in 
praise  of  Lichfield  and  its  inhabitants,  who,  he  said,  were 
'  the  most  sober,  decent  people '  in  England,  the  genteelest 
in  proportion  to  their  wealth,  and  spoke  the  purest  Eng- 
lish'*.' I  doubted  as  to  the  last  article  of  this  eulogy:  for 
they  had  several  provincial  sounds ;  as  there,  pronounced 
like  fear,  instead  of  like  fair ;  onee  pronounced  zvoonse,  in- 
stead of  ivunse,  or  ivonsc.  Johnson  himself  never  got  en- 
tirely free  of  those  provincial  accents \  Garrick  sometimes 
used  to  take  him  oiY,  squeezing  a  lemon  into  a  punch-bowl, 
with  uncouth  gesticulations,  looking  round  the  company, 
and  calling  out, '  Who's  for  poonsJi  ?  * ' 

Very  little  business  appeared  to  be  going  forward  in  Lich- 
field. I  found  however  two  strange  manufactures  for  so 
inland  a  place,  sail-cloth  and  streamers  for  ships;  and  I 
observed  them  making  some  saddle  -  cloths,  and  dressing 
sheepskins :  but  upon  the  whole,  the  busy  hand  of  industry 
seemed  to  be  quite  slackened.  '  Surely,  Sir,  (said  I,)  you 
arc  an  idle  set  of  people.'  '  Sir,  (said  Johnson,)  we  are  a 
city  of  philosophers,  we  work  with  our  heads,  and  make 
the  boobies  of  Birmingham'  work  for  us  with  their  hands.' 

England  is  generally  given  to  horses,  but  in  Scotland  supports  the 
people.'     See  an/t;  i.  341,  note  3. 

'  '"  I  remember,"  said  Dr.  Johnson,  "  when  all  the  decent  people  in 
Lichfield  got  drunk  every  night."  '  Boswell's  Hebrides,  Aug.  19.  See 
post,  iii.89. 

"  He  had  to  allow  that  in  literature  they  were  behind  the  age. 
Nearly  four  years  after  the  publication  of  Evelina,  he  wrote  : — '  What- 
ever Burney  [by  Burney  he  meant  Miss  Burney]  may  think  of  the 
celerity  of  fame,  the  name  of  Evelina  had  never  been  heard  at  Lich- 
field till  I  brought  it.  I  am  afraid  my  dear  townsmen  will  be  men- 
tioned in  future  days  as  the  last  part  of  this  nation  that  was  civilised. 
But  the  days  of  darkness  arc  soon  to  be  at  an  end ;  the  reading  soci- 
ety ordered  it  to  be  procured  this  week.'     Piozzi  Letters,  ii.  221. 

'  See  afitc,  ii.  182. 

*  Garrick  himself,  like  the  Lichlicldians,  always  said  — .?/////>/•<■///'•, 
sh  uperior.     B  U  R  N  E  Y . 

'  Johnson  did  not  always  speak  so  disrespectfully  of  Birmingham. 
In  his  Taxation  no  Tyranny  {  Works,  vi.  228),  he  wrote  :— *  The  traders 
of  Birmingham  have  rescued  themselves  from  all  imputation  of  nar- 

Tlicrc 


532  Garriclcs  conversation.  [a.d.  1776. 


There  was  at  this  time  a  company  of  players  performing 
at  Lichfield.  The  manager,  Mr.  Stanton,  sent  his  compli- 
ments, and  begged  leave  to  wait  on  Dr.  Johnson.  John- 
son received  him  very  courteously,  and  he  drank  a  glass  of 
wine  with  us.  He  was  a  plain  decent  well-behaved  man, 
and  expressed  his  gratitude  to  Dr.  Johnson  for  having  once 
got  him  permission  from  Dr.  Taylor  at  Ashbourne  to  play 
there  upon  moderate  terms.  Garrick's  name  was  soon  in- 
troduced. Johnson.  '  Garrick's  conversation  is  gay  and 
grotesque.  It  is  a  dish  of  all  sorts,  but  all  good  things. 
There  is  no  solid  meat  in  it :  there  is  a  want  of  sentiment 
in  it.  Not  but  that  he  has  sentiment  sometimes,  and  senti- 
ment, too,  very  powerful  and  very  pleasing :  but  it  has  not 
its  full  proportion  in  his  conversation.' 

When  we  were  by  ourselves  he  told  me, '  Forty  years  ago, 
Sir,  I  was  in  love  with  an  actress  here,  Mrs.  Emmet,  who 
acted  Flora,  in  Hob  in  the  Well\'  What  merit  this  lady 
had  as  an  actress,  or  what  was  her  figure,  or  her  manner, 
I  have  not  been  informed :  but,  if  we  may  believe  Mr.  Gar- 
rick,  his  old  master's  taste  in  theatrical  merit  was  by  no 
means  refined^;  he  was  not  an  clcgans  forniaritni  specta- 
tor^. Garrick  used  to  tell,  that  Johnson  said  of  an  actor, 
who  played  Sir  Harry  Wildair*  at  Lichfield, '  There  is  a 
courtly  vivacity  about  the  fellov/ ;'  when  in  fact,  according 
to  Garrick's  account, '  he  was  the  most  vulgar  rufifian  that 
ever  went  upon  boards! 

We  had  promised  Mr.  Stanton  to  be  at  his  theatre  on 
Monday.     Dr.  Johnson  jocularly  proposed  me  to  write  a 

row  selfishness  by  a  manly  recommendation  to  Parliament  of  the 
rights  and  dignity  of  their  native  country.'  The  boobies  in  this  case 
were  sound  Tories. 

'  This  play  was  Gibber's  Hob  ;  or  The  Country  Wake,  with  additions, 
which  in  its  turn  was  Dogget's  Coiuitry  Wake  reduced.  Reed's  Biog. 
Dram.  ii.  307. 

"^  Boswell  sdiySyposi,  under  Sept.  30,  1783,  that '  Johnson  had  thought 
more  upon  the  subject  of  acting  than  might  be  generally  supposed.' 

°  A  nice  observer  of  the  female  form.  Croker.  Terence,  Enn. 
iii.  5. 

*  In  Farquhar's  Comedy  of  Sir  Harry  Wildair. 

Prolosfue 


Aetat.  G7.]  Mr.  Green  s  museum.  533 

Prologue  for  the  occasion  :  '  A  Prologue,  by  James  Boswell, 
Esq.  from  the  Hebrides.'  I  was  really  inclined  to  take  the 
hint.  Methought,  '  Prologue,  spoken  before  Dr.  Samuel 
Johnson,  at  Lichfield,  1776;'  would  have  sounded  as  well 
as,  '  Prologue,  spoken  before  the  Duke  of  York,  at  Oxford,' 
in  Charles  the  Second's  time.  Much  might  have  been  said 
of  what  Lichfield  had  done  for  Shakespeare,  by  producing 
Johnson  and  Garrick.     But  I  found  he  was  averse  to  it. 

We  went  and  viewed  the  museum  of  Mr.  Richard  Green, 
apothecary  here,  who  told  me  he  was  proud  of  being  a  re- 
lation of  Dr.  Johnson's.  It  was,  truely,  a  wonderful  col- 
lection, both  of  antiquities  and  natural  curiosities,  and  in- 
genious works  of  art.  He  had  all  the  articles  accurately 
arranged,  with  their  names  upon  labels,  printed  at  his  own 
little  press ;  and  on  the  staircase  leading  to  it  was  a  board, 
with  the  names  of  contributors  marked  in  gold  letters.  A 
printed  catalogue  of  the  collection  was  to  be  had  at  a  book- 
seller's. Johnson  expressed  his  admiration  of  the  activity 
and  diligence  and  good  fortune  of  Mr.  Green,  in  getting 
together,  in  his  situation,  so  great  a  variety  of  things ;  and 
Mr.  Green  told  me  that  Johnson  once  said  to  him, '  Sir,  I 
should  as  soon  have  thought  of  building  a  man  of  war,  as  of 
collecting  such  a  museum.'  Mr.  Green's  obliging  alacrity  in 
shewing  it  was  very  pleasing.  His  engraved  portrait,  with 
which  he  has  favoured  me,  has  a  motto  truely  charactcr- 
istical  of  his  disposition, '  N'cJiio  sibi  vivat.' 

A  physician  being  mentioned  who  had  lost  his  practice, 
because  his  whimsically  changing  his  religion  had  made  peo- 
ple distrustful  of  him,  I  maintained  that  this  was  unreason- 
able, as  religion  is  unconnected  with  medical  skill.  JOHN- 
SON. '  Sir,  it  is  not  unreasonable  ;  for  when  people  see  a 
man  absurd  in  what  they  understand,  they  may  conclude 
the  same  of  him  in  what  they  do  not  understand.  If  a 
physician  were  to  take  to  eating  of  horse-flesh,  nobody 
would  employ  him;  though  one  may  eat  horse-flesh,  and 
be  a  very  skilful  physician.  If  a  man  were  cilucatcil  in  an 
absurd  religion,  his  continuing  to  profess  it  would  not  hurt 
him,  though  his  changing  to  it  would.' 

Wc 


534  Dining  with  friends.  [a.d.  ittg. 

We  drank  tea  and  coffee  at  Mr.  Peter  Garrick's,  where 
was  Mrs.  Aston,  one  of  the  maiden  sisters  of  Mrs.  Walms- 
ley,  wife  of  Johnson's  first  friend',  and  sister  also  of  the 
lady  of  whom  Johnson  used  to  speak  Avith  the  warmest 
admiration,  by  the  name  of  Molly  Aston ^  who  was  after- 
wards married  to  Captain  Brodie  of  the  navy. 

On  Sunday,  March  24,  we  breakfasted  with  Mrs.  Cobb,  a 
widow  lady,  who  lived  in  an  agreeable  sequestered  place 
close  by  the  town,  called  the  Friary,  it  having  been  formerly 
a  religious  house.  She  and  her  niece.  Miss  Adey,  were  great 
admirers  of  Dr.  Johnson ;  and  he  behaved  to  them  with  a 
kindness  and  easy  pleasantry,  such  as  we  see  between  old 
and  intimate  acquaintance.  He  accompanied  Mrs.  Cobb  to 
St.  Mary's  church,  and  I  went  to  the  cathedral,  where  I  was 
very  much  delighted  with  the  musick,  finding  it  to  be  pecul- 
iarly solemn  and  accordant  with  the  words  of  the  service. 

We  dined  at  Mr.  Peter  Garrick's,  who  was  in  a  very  lively 
humour,  and  verified  Johnson's  saying,  that  if  he  had  culti- 
vated gaiety  as  much  as  his  brother  David,  he  might  have 
equally  excelled  in  it.  He  was  to-day  quite  a  London  nar- 
rator, telling  us  a  variety  of  anecdotes  with  that  earnestness 
and  attempt  at  mimicry  which  we  usually  find  in  the  wits 
of  the  metropolis.  Dr.  Johnson  went  with  me  to  the  cathe- 
dral in  the  afternoon  ^  It  was  grand  and  pleasing  to  con- 
template this  illustrious  writer,  now  full  of  fame,  worship- 
ping in  the  'solemn  temple*'  of  his  native  city. 

I  returned  to  tea  and  coffee  at  Mr.  Peter  Garrick's,  and 
then  found  Dr.  Johnson  at  the  Reverend  Mr.  Seward's', 
Canon   Residentiary,  who   inhabited   the   Bishop's   palace", 

"  Gilbert  Walmsley,  ante,  i.  94.  '^  See  a7ite,  i.  96. 

^  Cradock  {Memoirs,  i.  74)  says  that  in  the  Cathedral  porch,  a  gen- 
tleman, '  who  might,  perhaps,  be  too  ambitious  to  be  thought  an  ac- 
quaintance of  the  great  Literary  Oracle,  ventured  to  say,  "  Dr.  John- 
son, we  have  had  a  most  excellent  discourse  to-day,"  to  which  he 
replied, "  That  may  be.  Sir,  but  it  is  impossible  for  you  to  know  it."  ' 

^  The  Tempest,  act.  iv.  sc.  i.  ^  S&epost,  iii.  172. 

"  Johnson,  in  1763,  advising  Miss  Porter  to  rent  a  house,  said  : — 'You 
might  have  the  Palace  for  twenty  pounds.'     Croker's  Boswcll,  p.  145. 

in 


Aetat.  67.]  The  Reverend  Mr.  Seward.  535 

in  which  Mr.  Wahnsley  Hved,  and  which  had  been  the  scene 
of  many  happy  hours  in  Johnson's  early  Hfe.  Mr.  Seward 
had,  with  ecclesiastical  hospitality  and  politeness,  asked  me 
in  the  morning,  merely  as  a  stranger,  to  dine  with  him  ;  and 
in  the  afternoon,  when  I  was  introduced  to  him,  he  asked 
Dr.  Johnson  and  me  to  spend  the  evening  and  sup  with 
him.  He  was  a  genteel  well-bred  dignified  clergyman,  had 
travelled  with  Lord  Charles  Fitzroy,  uncle  of  the  present 
Duke  of  Grafton,  who  died  when  abroad,  and  he  had  lived 
much  in  the  great  world.  He  was  an  ingenious  and  literary 
man,  had  published  an  edition  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher, 
and  written  verses  in  Dodsley's  collection.  His  lady  was 
the  daughter  of  Mr.  Hunter,  Johnson's  first  schoolmas- 
ter. And  now,  for  the  first  time,  I  had  the  pleasure 
of  seeing  his  celebrated  daughter.  Miss  Anna  Seward,  to 
whom  I  have  since  been  indebted  for  many  civilities, 
as  well  as  some  obliging  communications  concerning  John- 
son'. 

Mr.  Seward  mentioned  to  us  the  observations  which  he 
had  made  upon  the  strata  of  earth  in  volcanoes,  from  which 
it  appeared,  that  they  were  so  very  different  in  depth  at 
different  periods,  that  no  calculation  whatever  could  be 
made  as  to  the  time  required  for  their  formation.  This 
fully  refuted  an  anti-mosaical  remark  introduced  into  Cap- 
tain Brydone's  entertaining  tour,  I  hope  heedlessly,  from  a 
kind  of  vanity  which  is  too  common  in  those  who  have  not 
sufficiently  studied  the  most  important  of  all  subjects.  Dr. 
Johnson,  indeed,  had  said  before,  independent  of  this  obser- 
\-ation,  '  Shall  all  the  accumulated  evidence  of  the  history 
of  the  world  ; — shall  the  authority  of  what  is  unquestionably 

'  Boswell,  after  his  IxKjk  was  published,  quarrelled  with  Miss  Sew- 
ard. He  said  that  he  was  forced  to  examine  these  communications 
'  with  much  caution.  They  were  tinctured  with  a  strong  prejudice 
against  Johnson.'  His  book,  he  continued,  was  meant  to  be  '  a  real 
history  and  not  a  novel,'  so  that  he  had  '  to  suppress  all  erroneous  par- 
ticulars, however  entertaining.'  He  accused  her  of  attacking  John- 
son with  malevolence.  CcJil.  Mag.  1793,  P-  '°°9-  ^^^  Boswell's  sec- 
ond meeting  with  her,  sec  post,  iii.  323. 

the 


536  The  death  of  Mr.  Thrales  son.       [a.d.  177G. 

the  most  ancient  writing,  be   overturned   by  an   uncertain 
remark  such  as  this'?' 

On  Monday,  March  25,  we  breakfasted  at  Mrs.  Lucy  Por- 
ter's. Johnson  had  sent  an  express  to  Dr.  Taylor's,  ac- 
quainting him  of  our  being  at  Lichfield",  and  Taylor  had 
returned  an  answer  that  his  post-chaise  should  come  for  us 
this  day.  While  we  sat  at  breakfast,  Dr.  Johnson  received 
a  letter  by  the  post,  which  seemed  to  agitate  him  very 
much.  When  he  had  read  it,  he  exclaimed,  *  One  of  the 
most  dreadful  things  that  has  happened  in  my  time.'  The 
phrase  my  time,  like  the  word  age,  is  usually  understood  to 
refer  to  an  event  of  a  publick  or  general  nature.  I  imag- 
ined something  like  an  assassination  of  the  King  —  like  a 
gunpowder  plot  carried  into  execution — or  like  another  fire 
of  London.  When  asked,  'What  is  it,  Sir?'  he  answered, 
'  Mr.  Thrale  has  lost  his  only  son' !'  This  was,  no  doubt,  a 
very  great  affliction  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thrale,  Avhich  their 
friends  would  consider  accordingly ;  but  from  the  manner 
in  which  the  intelligence  of  it  was  communicated  by  John- 
son, it  appeared  for  the  moment  to  be  comparatively  small. 
I,  however,  soon  felt  a  sincere  concern,  and  was  curious  to 
observe,  how  Dr.  Johnson  would  be  affected.  He  said, 
'  This  is  a  total  extinction  to  their  family,  as  much  as  if 

'  A  Signer  Recupero  had  noticed  on  Etna,  the  thickness  of  each 
stratum  of  earth  between  the  several  strata  of  lava.  '  He  tells  me,' 
wrote  Brydone, '  he  is  exceedingly  embarrassed  by  these  discoveries 
in  writing  the  history  of  the  mountain.  That  Moses  hangs  like  a  dead 
weight  upon  him,  and  blunts  all  his  zeal  for  inquiry;  for  that  really 
he  has  not  the  conscience  to  make  his  mountain  so  young  as  that 
prophet  makes  the  world.  The  bishop,  who  is  strenuously  orthodox 
— for  it  is  an  excellent  see — has  already  warned  him  to  be  upon  his 
guard,  and  not  to  pretend  to  be  a  better  natural  historian  than  Moses.' 
Brydone 's  Tour,  i.  141. 

"  He  wrote : — '  Mr.  Boswell  is  with  me,  but  I  will  take  care  that  he 
shall  hinder  no  business,  nor  shall  he  know  more  than  3'ou  would 
have  him.'     Mr.  Morison's  CoUcctio}i  of  Auiograplis,  vol.  ii. 

^  'March  23,  1776.  Master  Thrale,  son  of  Mr.  Thrale,  member  for 
the  Borough,  suddenly  before  his  father's  door.'  Gent.  Mag.  1776, 
p.  142. 

they 


Aetat.  67.]  Feeling  for  others.  537 

they  were  sold  into  captivity.'  Upon  my  mentioning  that 
Mr.  Thrale  had  daughters,  who  might  inherit  his  wealth  ; — 
'  Daughters,  (said  Johnson,  warmly,)  he'll  no  more  value  his 
daughters  than — '  I  was  going  to  speak. — '  Sir,  (said  he,) 
don't  you  know  how  you  yourself  think?  Sir,  he  wishes  to 
propagate  his  name'.'  In  short,  I  saw  male  succession 
strong  in  his  mind,  even  where  there  was  no  name,  no  fam- 
ily of  any  long  standing.  I  said,  it  was  lucky  he  was  not 
present  when  this  misfortune  happened.  Johnson.  '  It  is 
lucky  for  me.  People  in  distress  never  think  that  you  feel 
enough.'  BOSWELL.  *  And,  Sir,  they  will  have  the  hope  of 
seeing  you,  which  will  be  a  relief  in  the  mean  time ;  and 
when  you  get  to  them,  the  pain  will  be  so  far  abated,  that 
they  will  be  capable  of  being  consoled  by  you,  which,  in 
the  first  violence  of  it,  I  believe,  would  not  be  the  case.' 
Johnson.  '  No,  Sir;  violent  pain  of  mind,  like  violent  pain 
of  body,  must  be  severely  felt.'  BoswELL.  '  I  own.  Sir,  I 
have  not  so  much  feeling  for  the  distress  of  others,  as  some 
people  have,  or  pretend  to  have :  but  I  know  this,  that  I 
would  do  all  in  my  power  to  relieve  them.'  Johnson. 
'  Sir,  it  is  affectation  to  pretend  to  feel  the  distress  of  oth- 
ers, as  much  as  they  do  themselves.  It  is  equally  so,  as 
if  one  should  pretend  to  feel  as  much  pain  while  a  friend's 
leg  is  cutting  off,  as  he  does.  No,  Sir  ;  you  have  expressed 
the  rational  and  just  nature  of  sympathy.  I  would  have 
gone  to  the  extremity  of  the  earth  to  have  preserved  this 
boy'.' 

He  was  soon  quite  calm.  The  letter  was  from  Mr.  Thralc's 
clerk,  and  concluded,  '  I  need  not  say  how  much  they  wish 
to  see  you  in  London.'  He  said,  'We  shall  hasten  back  from 
Taylor's.' 

Mrs.  Lucy   Porter  and    some  other  ladies   of  the   place 

'  Sg.q^  post,  iii.  109. 

*  '  Sir,'  he  said, '  I  would  walk  to  the  extent  of  the  diameter  of  the 
earth  to  save  Beauclerk  '  (post,  1780,  in  Mr.  Langton's  Collection).  He 
had  written  of  the  boy  the  previous  summer : — '  Pray  give  my  service 
to  my  dear  friend  Harry,  and  tell  him  that  Mr.  Murphy  does  not  love 
him  better  than  I  do.'     Piozzi  Letters,  i.  262. 

talked 


538  Shakspeares  mtilberry-tree.  [a.d.  177G, 


talked  a  great  deal  of  him  when  he  was  out  of  the  room, 
not  only  with  veneration  but  affection.  It  pleased  me  to 
find  that  he  was  so  much  beloved  in  his  native  city. 

Mrs.  Aston,  whom  I  had  seen  the  preceding  night,  and 
her  sister,  Mrs.  Gastrel,  a  widow  lady,  had  each  a  house  and- 
garden,  and  pleasure-ground,  prettily  situated  upon  Stow- 
hill,  a  gentle  eminence,  adjoining  to  Lichfield.  Johnson 
walked  away  to  dinner  there,  leaving  me  by  myself  with- 
out any  apology;  I  wondered  at  this  want  of  that  facility 
of  manners,  from  which  a  man  has  no  difficulty  in  carry- 
ing a  friend  to  a  house  where  he  is  intimate ;  I  felt  it  very 
unpleasant  to  be  thus  left  in  solitude  in  a  country  town, 
where  I  was  an  entire  stranger,  and  began  to  think  myself 
unkindly  deserted :  but  I  was  soon  relieved,  and  convinced 
that  my  friend,  instead  of  being  deficient  in  delicacy,  had 
conducted  the  matter  with  perfect  propriety,  for  I  received 
the  following  note  in  his  handwriting :  '  Mrs.  Gastrel,  at  the 
lower  house  on  Stowhill,  desires  Mr.  Boswell's  company  to 
dinner  at  two.'  I  accepted  of  the  invitation,  and  had  here 
another  proof  how  amiable  his  character  was  in  the  opin- 
ion of  those  who  knew  him  best.  I  was  not  informed,  till 
afterwards,  that  Mrs.  Gastrel's  husband  was  the  clergyman 
who,  while  he  lived  at  Stratford  upon  Avon,  where  he  was 
proprietor  of  Shakspeare's  garden,  with  Gothick  barbarity 
cut  down  his  mulberry-tree',  and,  as  Dr.  Johnson  told  me, 
did  it  to  vex  his  neighbours.  His  lady,  I  have  reason  to 
believe,  on  the  same  authority%  participated  in  the  guilt  of 
what  the  enthusiasts  for  our  immortal  bard  deem  almost 
a  species  of  sacrilege. 

After  dinner  Dr.  Johnson  wrote  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Thrale 
on  the  death  of  her  son\  I  said  it  would  be  very  distress- 
ing to  Thrale,  but  she  would  soon   forget  it,  as  she  had  so 

'  See  an  accurate  and  animated  statement  of  Mr.  Gastrel's  barbarity, 
by  Mr.  Malone,  in  a  note  on  Some  account  of  the  Life  of  IVilliani  Sliak- 
speare  prefixed  to  his  admirable  edition  of  that  poet's  works,  vol.  i. 
p.  118.     BOSWELL. 

•  See  Prior's  Life  of  Malone,  p.  142. 

^  Piozzi  Letters,  i.  307. 

many 


Aetat.  G7.]     The  theatre  ill  Lichfield  Towu-Iiall.  539 

many  things  to  think  of.  JOHNSON.  '  No,  Sir,  Thrale  will 
forget  it  first.  She  has  many  things  that  she  may  think 
of.  He  has  many  things  that  he  must  think  of'.'  This 
was  a  very  just  remark  upon  the  different  effect  of  those 
light  pursuits  which  occupy  a  vacant  and  easy  mind,  and 
those  serious  engagements  which  arrest  attention,  and  keep 
us  from  brooding  over  grief. 

He  observed  of  Lord  Bute, '  It  was  said  of  Augustus,  that 
it  would  have  been  better  for  Rome  that  he  had  never  been 
born,  or  had  never  died.  So  it  would  have  been  better  for 
this  nation  if  Lord  Bute  had  never  been  minister,  or  had 
never  resigned.' 

In  the  evening  we  went  to  the  Town-hall,  which  was  con- 
verted into  a  temporary  theatre,  and  saw  Thcodosius,  with 
The  Stratford  yubilee.  I  was  happy  to  see  Dr.  Johnson 
sitting  in  a  conspicuous  part  of  the  pit,  and  receiving  affec- 
tionate homage  from  all  his  acquaintance.  We  were  quite 
gay  and  merry.  I  afterwards  mentioned  to  him  that  I 
condemned  myself  for  being  so,  when  poor  I\Ir.  and  Mrs. 
Thrale  were  in  such  distress.  Johnson.  'You  arc  wrong, 
Sir ;  twenty  years  hence  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thrale  will  not  suffer 
much  pain  from  the  death  of  their  son.  Now,  Sir,  you  are 
to  consider,  that  distance  of  place,  as  well  as  distance  of 
time,  operates  upon  the  human  feelings.  I  would  not  have 
you  be  gay  in  the  presence  of  the  distressed,  because  it 
would  shock  them ;  but  you  may  be  gay  at  a  distance. 
Pain  for  the  loss  of  a  friend,  or  of  a  relation  whom  we 
love,  is  occasioned  by  the  want  which  we  feel.  In  time 
the  vacuity  is  filled  with  something  else  ;  or  sometimes  the 
vacuity  closes  up  of  itself.' 

Mr.  Seward  and  Mr.  Pearson,  another  clergyman  here, 
supt  with  us  at  our  inn,  and  after  they  left  us,  we  sat  up 
late  as  we  used  to  do  in  London. 

Here  I  shall  record  some  fragments  of  my  friend's  con- 
versation during  this  jaunt. 

*  Marriage,  Sir,  is  much  more  necessary  to  a  man  than  to 

'  Scc^t^i/,  iii.  21,  note. 

a  woman  ; 


540  Sir  Fletcher  Norton.  [a.d.  1776. 

a  woman ;  for  he  is  much  less  able  to  supply  himself  with 
domestick  comforts.  You  will  recollect  my  saying  to  some 
ladies  the  other  day,  that  I  had  often  wondered  why  young 
women  should  marry,  as  they  have  so  much  more  freedom, 
and  so  much  more  attention  paid  to  them  while  unmarried, 
than  when  married.  I  indeed  did  not  mention  the  strong 
reason  for  their  marrying  —  the  mechanical  reason.'  Bos- 
WELL.  *  Why  that  is  a  strong  one.  But  does  not  imagina- 
tion make  it  much  more  important  than  it  is  in  reality?  Is 
it  not,  to  a  certain  degree,  a  delusion  in  us  as  well  as  in 
women?'  JOHNSON.  'Why  yes,  Sir;  but  it  is  a  delusion 
that  is  always  beginning  again.'  BOSWELL.  '  I  don't  know 
but  there  is  upon  the  whole  more  misery  than  happiness 
produced  by  that  passion.'  JOHNSON.  '  I  don't  think  so, 
Sir.' 

'  Never  speak  of  a  man  in  his  own  presence.  It  is  always 
indelicate,  and  may  be  offensive.' 

'Questioning  is  not  the  mode  of  conversation  among 
gentlemen".  It  is  assuming  a  superiority,  and  it  is  par- 
ticularly wrong  to  question  a  man  concerning  himself. 
There  may  be  parts  of  his  former  life  which  he  may  not 
wish  to  be  made  known  to  other  persons,  or  even  brought 
to  his  own  recollection.' 

'A  man  should  be  careful  never  to  tell  tales  of  himself 
to  his  own  disadvantage.  People  may  be  amused  and  laugh 
at  the  time,  but  they  will  be  remembered,  and  brought  out 
against  him  upon  some  subsequent  occasion.' 

'  Much  may  be  done  if  a  man  puts  his  whole  mind  to  a 
particular  object.  By  doing  so,  Norton^  has  made  himself 
the  great  lawyer  that  he  is  allowed  to  be.' 

'  Mr.  Hoole  wrote  of  Johnson's  last  days : — '  Being  asked  unneces- 
sary and  frivolous  questions,  he  said  he  often  thought  of  Macbeth  [act 
iii.  sc.  4] — "Question  enrages  him."'  Qrdkcr's  Boswett, -p-'iAZ-  See 
post,  iii.  66,  304. 

'  Sir  Fletcher  Norton,  afterwards  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  in  1782  created  Baron  Grantley.  Ma  lone.  For  Norton's 
ignorance,  see  a7tte,  ii.  105.  Walpole  {Letters,  iv.  124)  described  him  as 
'  a  tough  enemy ;  I  don't  mean  in  parts  or  argument,  but  one  that 

I  mentioned 


Aetat.  C7.]  Crazy  piety.  541 

I  mentioned  an  acquaintance  of  mine',  a  sectary,  who 
was  a  very  religious  man,  who  not  only  attended  regular- 
ly on  publick  worship  with  those  of  his  communion,  but 
made  a  particular  study  of  the  Scriptures,  and  even  wrote 
a  commentary  on  some  parts  of  them,  yet  w\as  known  to 
be  very  licentious  in  indulging  himself  with  women  ;  main- 
taining that  men  are  to  be  saved  by  faith  alone,  and  that 
the  Christian  religion  had  not  prescribed  any  fixed  rule  for 
the  intercourse  between  the  sexes.  JOHXSOX.  'Sir,  there 
is  no  trusting  to  that  crazy  piety.' 

I  observed  that  it  was  strange  how  well  Scotchmen  were 
known  to  one  another  in  their  own  country,  though  born 
in  very  distant  counties ;  for  we  do  not  find  that  the 
gentlemen  of  neighbouring  counties  in  England  are  mut- 
ually known  to  each  other.  Johnson,  with  his  usual 
acuteness,  at  once  saw  and  explained  the  reason  of  this ; 
'  Why,    Sir,   you    have    Edinburgh,   where    the    gentlemen 

makes  an  excellent  bull-dog.'  When  in  1770  he  was  made  Speaker, 
Walpole  wrote  : — '  Nothing  can  exceed  the  badness  of  his  character, 
even  in  this  bad  age.'  lb.  v.  217.  In  his  Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of 
George  III,  i.  240,  Walpole  says:  —  'It  was  known  that  in  private 
causes  he  took  money  from  both  parties.'  Home  (afterwards  Home 
Tooke)  charged  Norton  with  this  practice  ;  Pari.  Hist.  xvii.  loio;  and 
so  did  Junius  in  his  Letter  xxxix.  Churchill,  in  The  Duellist  {Poems, 
ed.  1766,  ii.  87),  writing  of  him,  says  : — 

'  HOV/    often  *:;:=;=*  :l: 

Hath  he  ta'cn  briefs  on  false  pretence, 

And  undertaken  the  defence 

Of  trusting  fools,  whom  in  the  end 

He  meant  to  ruin,  not  defend.' 
Lord  Eldon  said  that  '  he  was  much  known  by  the  name  of  Sir  Hull- 
face  Double  Fee.'  He  added  that  '  he  was  not  a  lawyer.'  Twiss's 
Eldon,  iii.  98.  '  Acting,  it  was  supposed  from  resentment,  having  been 
refused  a  peerage,'  he  made  on  May  7,  1777,  a  bold  speech  to  the  King 
on  presenting  the  Civil  List  Rill.  '  He  told  him  that  his  faithful  Com- 
mons, labouring  under  burthens  almost  too  heavy  to  be  borne,  had 
granted  him  a  very  great  additional  revenue — great  beyond  example, 
great  beyond  his  Majesty's  highest  wants.'  J'arl.  Jlist.  xi\.  21%  and 
Wa.\po\e's /o!/rnal  of  the  A\vgn  of  George  III,  ii.  113. 

•  IBurns's  Holy  Willie,  like  Boswell,  was  an  Ayrshire  man. 

from 


542  Dr.  Taylor  at  Ashbourne.  [a.d.  1776. 

from  all  your  counties  meet,  and  which  is  not  so  large 
but  they  are  all  known.  There  is  no  such  common  place 
of  collection  in  England,  except  London,  where  from  its 
great  size  and  diffusion,  many  of  those  who  reside  in  con- 
tiguous counties  of  England,  may  long  remain  unknown  to 
each  other.' 

On  Tuesday,  March  26,  there  came  for  us  an  equipage 
properly  suited  to  a  wealthy  well-beneficed  clergyman  ;— 
Dr.  Taylor's  large  roomy  post-chaise,  drawn  by  four  stout 
plump  horses,  and  driven  by  two  steady  jolly  postillions, 
which  conveyed  us  to  Ashbourne ;  where  I  found  my 
friend's  schoolfellow  living  upon  an  establishment  perfectly 
corresponding  with  his  substantial  creditable  equipage :  his 
house,  garden,  pleasure-grounds,  table,  in  short  every  thing 
good,  and  no  scantiness  appearing.  Every  man  should  form 
such  a  plan  of  living  as  he  can  execute  completely.  Let 
him  not  draw  an  outline  wider  than  he  can  fill  up.  I  have 
seen  many  skeletons  of  shew  and  magnificence  which  excite 
at  once  ridicule  and  pity.  Dr.  Taylor  had  a  good  estate 
of  his  own,  and  good  preferment  in  the  church  \  being  a 
prebendary  of  Westminster,  and  rector  of  Bosworth.  He 
was  a  diligent  justice  of  the  peace,  and  presided  over  the 
town  of  Ashbourne,  to  the  inhabitants  of  which"  I  was  told 
he  w^as  very  liberal ;  and  as  a  proof  of  this  it  was  mentioned 
to  me,  he  had  the  preceding  winter  distributed  two  hun- 
dred pounds  among  such  of  them  as  stood  in  need  of  his 
assistance.  He  had  consequently  a  considerable  political 
interest  in  the  county  of  Derby,  which  he  employed  to  sup- 
port the  Devonshire  family ;  for  though  the  schoolfellow 
and  friend  of  Johnson,  he  was  a  Whig.  I  could  not  per- 
ceive in  his  character  much  congeniality  of  any  sort  with 
that   of   Johnson,  who,  however,  said  to  me, '  Sir,  he  has  a 


'  Johnson,  on  May  i6,  wrote  of  him  to  Mrs.  Thrale  :— '  He  has  his 
head  as  full  as  yours  at  an  election.  Livings  and  preferments,  as  if 
he  were  in  want  with  twenty  children,  run  in  his  head.  But  a  man 
must  have  his  head  on  something,  small  or  great.'     Piozst  Letters, 

i-  325- 

very 


Aetat.  67.]     Old  men  putting  themselves  to  nurse.       543 

very  strong  understanding'.'  His  size,  and  figure,  and  coun- 
tenance, and  manner,  were  that  of  a  hearty  EngHsli  'Squire, 
with  the  parson  super-induced  :  and  I  took  particuhir  notice 
of  his  upper  servant,  Mr.  Peters,  a  decent  grave  man,  in  pur- 
ple clothes,  and  a  large  white  wig,  like  the  butler  or  major 
doino  of  a  Bishop. 

Dr.  Johnson  and  Dr.  Taylor  met  with  great  cordiality; 
and  Johnson  soon  gave  him  the  tame  sad  account  of  their 
schoolfellow,  Congreve,  that  he  had  given  to  Mr.  Mector'' : 
adding  a  remark  of  such  moment  to  the  rational  conduct 
of  a  man  in  the  decline  of  life,  that  it  deserves  to  be  im- 
printed upon  every  mind  :  '  There  is  nothing  against  which 
an  old  man  should  be  so  much  upon  his  guard  as  jnitting 
himself  to  nurse".'  Innumerable  have  been  the  melancholy 
instances  of  men  once  distinguished  for  firmness,  resolution, 
and  spirit,  who  in  their  latter  days  have  been  governed  like 
children,  by  interested  female  artifice. 

Dr.  Taylor  commended  a  physician  who  was  known  to 
him  and  Dr.  Johnson,  and  said,  '  I  fight  many  battles  for 
him,  as  many  people  in  the  country  dislike  him.'  JOHN- 
SON. '  But  you  should  consider.  Sir,  that  by  every  one 
of  your  victories  he  is  a  loser  ;  for,  eveiy  man  of  whom 
you  get  the  better,  will  be  very  angry,  and  resolve  not  to 
employ  him ;  whereas  if  people  get  the  better  of  you   in 

'  Johnson  wrote  on  May  25,  1780  {Piozzi  Letters,  ii.  136) :  ' is 

come  to  town,  brisk  and  vigorous,  fierce  and  fell,  to  drive  on  his  law- 
suit. Nothing  in  all  life  now  can  be  more  projlignter  than  what  he 
is;  and  if,  in  case,  that  so  be,  that  they  persist  for  to  resist  him,  he  is 
resolved  not  to  spare  no  money,  nor  no  time.'  Taylor,  no  doubt,  is 
meant,  and  Baretti,  in  a  marginal  note,  says : — '  This  was  the  elegant 
phraseology  of  that  Doctor."     Set  post,  iii.  205. 

*  See  a?ite,  ii.  527. 

"  He  did  not  hold  with  Steele,  who  in  'I'he  Spectator,  No.  153,  writes: 
— '  It  was  prettily  said, "  He  that  would  be  long  an  old  man  must  be- 
gin early  to  be  one."  '  Mrs.  Piozzi  {Anec.  p.  275)  says  that '  saying  of 
the  old  philosopher,  that  he  who  wants  least  is  most  like  the  gods 
who  want  nothing,  was  a  favourite  sentence  with  Dr.  Johnson,  who 
required  less  attendance,  sick  or  well,  liuin  ever  I  saw  any  luiinaii 
creature.' 

arLTumcnt 


544  The  lustre  froin  dress.  [a.d.  1776. 

argument  about  him,  they'll  think,  "  We'll  send  for  Dr. 
**-;v-:vvv-;v  1  nevertheless."'  This  was  an  observation  deep  and 
sure  in  human  nature. 

Next  day  we  talked  of  a  book^  in  which  an  eminent  judge 
was  arraigned  before  the  bar  of  the  publick,  as  having  pro- 
nounced an  unjust  decision  in  a  great  cause.  Dr.  Johnson 
maintained  that  this  publication  would  not  give  any  uneasi- 
ness to  the  judge.  '  For,  (said  he,)  either  he  acted  honest- 
ly, or  he  meant  to  do  injustice.  If  he  acted  honestly,  his 
own  consciousness  will  protect  him  ;  if  he  meant  to  do  in- 
justice, he  will  be  glad  to  see  the  man  who  attacks  him, 
so  much  vexed.' 

Next  day,  as  Dr.  Johnson  had  acquainted  Dr.  Taylor  of 
the  reason  for  his  returning  speedily  to  London,  it  was  re- 
solved that  we  should  set  out  after  dinner.  A  few  of  Dr. 
Taylor's  neighbours  were  his  guests  that  day. 

Dr.  Johnson  talked  with  approbation  of  one  who  had 
attained  to  the  state  of  the  philosophical  wise  man,  that 
is,  to  have  no  want  of  any  thing.  '  Then,  Sir,  (said  I,)  the 
savage  is  a  wise  man.'  '  Sir,  (said  he,)  I  do  not  mean  simply 
being  without,  ■ —  but  not  having  a  want.*  I  maintained, 
against  this  proposition,  that  it  was  better  to  have  fine 
clothes,  for  instance,  than  not  to  feel  the  want  of  them. 
Johnson.  '  No,  Sir;  fine  clothes  are  good  only  as  they  sup- 
ply the  want  of  other  means  of  procuring  respect.  Was 
Charles  the  Twelfth,  think  you,  less  respected  for  his  coarse 
blue  coat  and  black  stock'?  And  you  find  the  King  of 
Prussia  dresses  plain,  because  the  dignity  of  his  charac- 
ter is  sufificient.'  I  here  brought  myself  into  a  scrape,  for 
I   heedlessly  said,  'Would   not  you,  Sir,  be  the  better  for 

^  Dr.  Butter,  of  Derby,  is  mentioned  post,  iii.  185,  and  under  May  8, 
1781. 

^  Andrew  Stuart's  Letters  to  Lord  Mansfield  {ante,  ii.  263). 

^  Johnson  was  thinking  of  Charles's  meeting  with  the  King  of  Po- 
land. '  Charles  XII.  etait  en  grosses  bottes,  ayant  pour  cravate  un  taf- 
fetas noir  qui  lui  serrait  le  cou  ;  son  habit  etait,  comme  a  I'ordinaire, 
d'un  gros  drap  bleu,  avec  des  boutons  de  cuivre  dore.'  Voltaire's 
Works,  ed.  1819,  xx.  123. 

velvet 


Aetat.  G7.]         Bosweirs  want  of  manners.  545 

velvet  and  embroidery?*  JOHNSON.  '  Sir,  you  put  an  end  to 
all  argument  when  you  introduce  your  opponent  himself. 
Have  you  no  better  manners?  There  is  your  want.  I 
apologised  by  saying,  I  had  mentioned  him  as  an  instance 
of  one  who  wanted  as  little  as  any  man  in  the  world,  and 
yet,  perhaps,  might  receive  some  additional  lustre  from 
dress. 


II,_35  APPENDIX 


APPENDIX  A. 

{Page  19.) 

In  the  Bodleian  is  the  following  autograph  record  by  Johnson 
of  Good  Friday,  March  28.  Easter  Sunday,  March  30,  and  May  4. 
1766,  and  the  copy  of  the  record  of  Saturday,  March  29.  They 
belong  to  the  series  published  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Strahan  under  the 
title  oi  Prayers  and  Meditations,  but  they  are  not  included  in  it. 

'  Good  Friday,  March  28,  1766.— On  the  night  before  I  used  proper 
Collects,  and  prayed  when  I  arose  in  the  morning.  I  had  all  the  week 
an  awe  upon  me,  not  thinking  on  Passion  week  till  I  looked  in  the 
almanack.  I  have  wholly  forborne  M  [?  meat]  and  wines,  except  one 
glass  on  Sunday  night. 

'  In  the  morning  I  rose,  ana  drank  very  small  tea  without  milk,  and 
had  nothing  more  that  day. 

'This  was  the  day  on  which  Tetty  died.  I  did  not  mingle  much 
men  [.''  mention]  of  her  with  the  devotions  of  this  day,  because  it  is 
dedicated  to  more  holy  subjects.  I  mentioned  her  at  church,  and 
prayed  once  solemnly  at  home.  I  was  twice  at  church,  and  went 
through  the  prayers  without  perturbation,  but  heard  the  sermons 
imperfectly.  I  came  in  both  times  at  the  second  lesson,  not  hearing 
the  bell. 

'  When  I  came  home  I  read  the  Psalms  for  the  day,  and  one  sermon 
in  Clark.  Scruples  distract  me,  but  at  church  I  had  hopes  to  conquer 
them. 

'I  bore  abstinence  this  day  not  well,  being  at  night  insupportably 
heavy,  but  as  fa.sting  does  not  produce  slcepyness,  I  had  perhaps 
rested  ill  the  night  before.  I  prayed  in  my  study  for  the  day,  and 
prayed  again  in  my  chamber.  I  went  to  bed  very  early  —  before 
elev^en. 

'  After  church  I  selected  collects  for  the  Sacraments. 

'  Finding  myself  upon  recollection  very  ignorant  of  religion,  I  formed 
a  purpose  of  studying  it. 

'  I  went  down  and  sat  to  tea,  but  was  too  heavy  to  converse. 

'  Saturday,  29. — I  rose  at  the  time  now  usual,  not  fully  refreshed. 
Went  to  tea.  A  sudden  thought  of  restraint  hindered  me.  I  drank 
but  one  dish.  Took  a  purge  for  my  health.  Still  uneasy.  Prayed, 
and  went  to  dinner.     Dined  sparingly  on  fish  [added  in  dilTerent  ink] 

about 


54S  Appendix  A. 

about  four.  Went  to  Simpson.  Was  driven  home  by  my  physick. 
Drank  tea,  and  am  much  refreshed.  I  believe  that  if  I  had  drank  tea 
again  yesterday,  I  had  escaped  the  heaviness  of  the  evening.  Fasting 
that  produces  inabihty  is  no  duty,  but  I  was  unwilling  to  do  less  than 
formerly. 

'  I  had  lived  more  abstemiously  than  is  usual  the  whole  week,  and 
taken  physick  twice,  which  together  made  the  fast  more  uneasy. 

'  Thus  much  I  have  written  medically,  to  show  that  he  who  can  fast 
long  must  have  lived  plentifully. 

'Saturday,  March  29,  1766. — I  was  yesterday  very  heavy.  I  do  not 
feel  myself  to-day  so  much  impressed  with  awe  of  the  approaching 
mystery.  I  had  this  day  a  doubt,  like  Baxter,  of  my  state,  and  found 
that  my  faith,  though  weak,  was  yet  faith.     O  God  !  strengthen  it. 

'  Since  the  last  reception  of  the  sacrament  I  hope  I  have  no  other- 
wise grown  worse  than  as  continuance  in  sin  makes  the  sinner's  con- 
dition more  dangerous. 

'  Since  last  New  Year's  Eve  I  have  risen  every  morning  by  eight,  at 
least  not  after  nine,  which  is  more  superiority  over  my  habits  than  I 
have  ever  before  been  able  to  obtain.  Scruples  still  distress  me.  My 
resolution,  with  the  blessing  of  God,  is  to  contend  with  them,  and,  if 
I  can,  to  conquer  them. 

'  My  resolutions  are — 

'  To  conquer  scruples. 

'  To  read  the  Bible  this  year. 

'  To  try  to  rise  more  early. 

'  To  study  Divinity. 

'  To  live  methodically. 

'  To  oppose  idleness. 

'  To  frequent  Divine  worship. 

'  Almighty  and  most  merciful  Father !  before  whom  I  now  appear 
laden  with  the  sins  of  another  year,  suffer  me  yet  again  to  call  upon 
Thee  for  pardon  and  peace. 

'  O  God  !  grant  me  repentance,  grant  me  reformation.  Grant  that  I 
may  be  no  longer  distracted  with  doubts,  and  harassed  with  vain  ter- 
rors. Grant  that  I  may  no  longer  linger  in  perplexity,  nor  waste  in 
idleness  that  life  which  Thou  hast  given  and  preserved.  Grant  that 
I  may  serve  Thee  in  firm  faith  and  diligent  endeavour,  and  that  I  may 
discharge  the  duties  of  my  calling  with  tranquillity  and  constancy. 
Take  not,  O  God,  Thy  holy  Spirit  from  me :  but  grant  that  I  may  so 
direct  my  life  by  Thy  holy  laws,  as  that,  Vv-hen  Thou  shalt  call  me 
hence,  I  may  pass  by  a  holy  and  happy  death  to  a  life  of  everlasting 
and  unchangeable  joy,  for  the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 

'  I  went  to  bed  (at)  one  or  later ;  but  did  not  sleep,  tho'  I  knew  not 
why. 

'  Easter  Day,  March  30,  1766. — I  rose  in  the  morning.  Prayed.  Took 
my  prayer  book  to  tea ;  drank  tea ;  planned  my  devotion  for  the  church. 
I  think  prayed  again.    Went  to  church,  was  early.    Went  through  the 

prayers 


Appendix  B.  549 

prayers  with  fixed  attention.  Could  not  hear  the  sermon.  After  ser- 
mon, appHed  myself  to  devotion.  Troubled  with  Baxter's  scruple, 
which  was  quieted  as  I  returned  home.  It  occurred  to  me  that  the 
scruple  itself  was  its  own  confutation. 

'  I  used  the  prayer  against  scruples  in  the  foregoing  page  in  the  pew, 
and  commended  (so  far  as  it  was  lawful)  Tetty,  dear  Tetty,  in  a  prayer 
by  herself,  then  my  other  friends.  What  collects  I  do  not  exactly 
remember.  I  gave  a  shilling.  I  then  went  towards  the  altar  that  I 
might  hear  the  service.  The  communicants  were  more  than  I  ever 
saw.  I  kept  back ;  used  again  the  foregoing  prayer ;  again  com- 
mended Tetty,  and  lifted  up  my  heart  for  the  rest.  I  prayed  in  the 
collect  for  the  fourteen  S.  after  Trinity  for  encrease  of  Faith,  Hope, 
and  Charity,  and  deliverance  from  scruples;  this  deliverance  was  the 
chief  subject  of  my  prayers.  O  God,  hear  me.  I  am  now  to  try  to 
conquer  them.  After  reception  I  repeated  my  petition,  and  again 
when  I  came  home.  My  dinner  made  me  a  little  peevish  ;  not  much. 
After  dinner  I  retired,  and  read  in  an  hour  and  a  half  the  seven  first 
chapters  of  St.  Matthew  in  Greek.  Glory  be  to  God.  God  grant  me 
to  proceed  and  improve,  for  Jesus  Christ's  sake.     Amen. 

'  I  went  to  Evening  Prayers,  and  was  undisturbed.  At  church  in 
the  morning  it  occurred  to  me  to  consider  about  example  of  good  any 
of  my  friends  had  set  me.  This  is  proper,  in  order  to  the  thanks  re- 
turned for  their  good  examples. 

'  My  attainment  of  rising  gives  me  comfort  and  hope.  O  God,  for 
Jesus  Christ's  sake,  bless  me.     Amen. 

'  After  church,  before  and  after  dinner,  I  read  Rotheram  on  Faith. 

'After  evening  prayer  I  retired,  and  wrote  this  account. 

'  I  then  repeated  the  prayer  of  the  day,  with  collects,  and  my  prayer 
for  night,  and  went  down  to  supper  at  near  ten. 

'  May  4,  — 66.  I  have  read  since  the  noon  of  Easter  day  the  Gospels 
of  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Mark  in  Greek. 

'  I  have  read  Xenophon's  Cyropaedia.' 

Bodleian  Library.    Select  Autographs.    (Montagu.) 


APPENDIX  B. 

{Page  356.) 

Johnson's  sentiments  towards  his  fellow-subjects  in  America 
have  never,  so  far  as  I  know,  been  rightly  stated.  It  was  not  be- 
cause they  fought  for  liberty  that  he  had  come  to  dislike  them. 
A  man  who,  'bursting  forth  with  a  generous  indignation,  had  said: 
— "The  Irish  are  in  a  most  unnatural  state;  for  we  see  there  the 

minority 


550  Appendix  B. 

minority  prevailing  over  the  .majority "  '  {ante,  \\.  2(^2),  was  not 
likely  to  wish  that  our  plantations  should  be  tyrannically  governed. 
The  man  who,  '  in  company  with  some  very  grave  men  at  Oxford, 
gave  as  his  toast,  "  Here's  to  the  next  insurrection  of  the  negroes 
in  the  West  Indies  "  '  {post,  iii.  228),  was  not  likely  to  condemn 
insurrections  in  general.  The  key  to  his  feelings  is  found  in  his 
indignant  cry,  '  How  is  it  that  we  hear  the  loudest  yelps  for  liberty 
among  the  drivers  of  negroes  ?'  (//^.)  He  hated  slavery  as  per- 
haps no  man  of  his  time  hated  it.  While  the  Quakers,  who  were 
almost  the  pioneers  in  tlie  Anti-slavery  cause,  were  still  slave- 
holders and  slave-dealers,  he  lifted  up  his  voice  against  it.  So 
early  as  1740,  when  Washington  was  but  a  child  of  eight,  he  had 
maintained  '  the  natural  right  of  the  negroes  to  liberty  and  inde- 
pendence.' (/F6'/-X'j,  vi.  313.)  In  1756  he  described  Jamaica  as 
'  a  place  of  great  wealth  and  dreadful  wickedness,  a  den  of  tyrants 
and  a  dungeon  of  slaves.'  {lb.  vi.  130.)  In  1759  he  wrote  : — 'Of 
black  men  the  numbers  are  too  great  who  are  now  repining  under 
English  cruelty.'  {lb.  iv.  407.)  In  the  same  year,  in  describing 
the  cruelty  of  the  Portuguese  discoverers,  he  said : — '  We  are  openly 
told  that  they  had  the  less  scruple  concerning  their  treatment  of 
the  savage  people,  because  they  scarcely  considered  them  as  dis- 
tinct from  beasts ;  and  indeed,  the  practice  of  all  the  European 
nations,  and  among  others  of  the  English  barbarians  that  eultivate 
the  southern  islands  of  America,  proves  that  this  opinion,  however 
absurd  and  foolish,  however  wicked  and  injurious,  still  continues 
to  prevail.  Interest  and  pride  harden  the  heart,  and  it  is  in  vain 
to  dispute  against  avarice  and  power.'  {lb.  v,  218.)  No  miserable 
sophistry  could  convince  him,  with  his  clear  mind  and  his  ardour 
for  liberty,  that  slavery  can  be  right.  'An  individual,'  he  wrote 
{post,  iii.  230),  'may,  indeed,  forfeit  his  liberty  by  a  crime  ;  but  he 
cannot  by  that  crime  forfeit  the  liberty  of  his  children.'  How 
deeply  he  felt  for  the  wrongs  done  to  helpless  races  is  shown  in  his 
dread  of  discoverers.  No  man  had  a  more  eager  curiosity,  or  more 
longed  that  the  bounds  of  knowledge  should  be  enlarged.  Yet  he 
wrote  : — '  I  do  not  much  wish  well  to  discoveries,  for  I  am  always 
afraid  they  will  end  in  conquest  and  robbery.'  (Croker's  Boswell, 
p.  248.)  In  his  Life  of  Savage,  written  in  1744,  he  said  {fVorks, 
viii.  156)  : — '  Savage  has  not  forgotten  ...  to  censure  those  crimes 
which  have  been  generally  committed  by  the  discoverers  of  new 
regions,  and  to  expose  the  enormous  wickedness  of  making  war  upon 

barbarous 


Appendix  B.  551 

barbaroiis  nations  because  they  cannot  resist,  and  of  invading 
countries  because  they  are  fruitful. . . .  He  has  asserted  the  natural 
equality  of  mankind,  and  endeavoured  to  suppress  that  pride  which 
inclines  men  to  imagine  that  right  is  the  consequence  of  power.' 
He  loved  the  University  of  Salamanca,  because  it  gave  it  as  its 
opinion  that  the  conquest  of  America  by  the  Spaniards  was  not 
lawful  [ante,  i.  527).  When,  in  1756,  the  English  and  French  were 
at  war  in  America,  he  said  that  'such  was  the  contest  that  no  hon- 
est man  could  heartily  wish  success  to  either  party. ...  It  was  only 
the  quarrel  of  two  robbers  for  the  spoils  of  a  passenger '  {ante,  i. 
356,  note  4).  When,  from  political  considerations,  opposition  was 
raised  in  1766  to  the  scheme  of  translating  the  Bible  into  Erse,  he 
wrote  : — '  To  omit  for  a  year,  or  for  a  day,  the  most  efficacious 
method  of  advancing  Christianity,  in  compliance  with  any  pur- 
poses that  terminate  on  this  side  of  the  grave,  is  a  crime  of  which 
I  know  not  that  the  world  has  yet  had  an  example,  except  in  the 
practice  of  the  planters  of  America — a  race  of  mortals  whom,  I  sup- 
pose, no  other  man  wishes  to  resemble '  {ante,  ii.  31).  Englishmen, 
as  a  nation,  had  no  right  to  reproach  their  fellow-subjects  in  Amer- 
ica with  being  drivers  of  negroes ;  for  England  shared  in  the  guilt 
and  the  gain  of  that  infamous  traffic.  Nay,  even  as  the  Virginian 
delegates  to  Congress  in  1774  complained:  —  'Our  repeated  at- 
tempts to  exclude  all  further  importations  of  slaves  from  Africa  by 
prohibition,  and  by  imposing  duties  which  might  amount  to  prohi- 
bition, have  hitherto  been  defeated  by  his  Majesty's  negative — 
thus  preferring  the  immediate  advantages  of  a  few  British  corsairs 
to  the  lasting  interests  of  the  American  States,  and  to  the  rights  of 
human  nature,  deeply  wounded  by  this  infamous  practice.'  Bright's 
Speeches,  ed.  1869,  i.  171.  Franklin  {Memoirs,  ed.  1818,  iii.  17),  writ- 
ing from  London  in  1772,  speaks  of  'the  hypocrisy  of  this  country, 
which  encourages  such  a  detestable  commerce  by  laws  for  promot- 
ing the  Guinea  trade ;  while  it  piqued  itself  on  its  virtue,  love  of 
liberty,  and  the  equity  of  its  courts  in  setting  free  a  single  negro.' 
From  the  slightest  stain  of  this  hypocrisy  Johnson  was  free.  He, 
at  all  events,  had  a  right  to  protest  against  '  the  yelps '  of  those 
who,  while  they  solemnly  asserted  that  among  the  unalienable 
rights  of  all  men  are  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  yet 
themselves  were  drivers  of  negroes. 

TilE    END    OF    THE   SECOND    VOLUME. 


PR3533    B6H5    1891    v. 2 
Boswell,    James,     1740-17S5 
Boswell's    Life    of    Johnson 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    000  621  949 


NIVERSITY  OF  CA  ,  R  y^RS'pEWB^^PT, 


3  1210  01220  8821 


|om 

■cgory    Paul,    Books 

O.     Dr  aw  e  r    G 
jrthridge,  California 


